Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield today proposed 156 days for the recounting of ballots from the disputed March 2nd elections.
A proposal dismissed as “unacceptable” by opposition-nominated elections commissioner, Sase Gunraj.
“He has given a proposal for the recount and it gives 156 days as the time for completion, which I find untenable,” Gunraj told Stabroek News following the conclusion of a meeting by GECOM.
Gunraj said he finds Lowenfield’s proposal absurd and unreasonable given that this country has already been waiting for over a month for results of less than 500,000 voters and feels that it is an insult to the people of this country.
He said that he expressed his dissatisfaction with the proposal and will tomorrow make a counter proposal which he hopes will find favour with the Commission.
“This is untenable right now and more particularly given the state this country finds itself in and I have indicated that I will tomorrow submit a proposal, when we meet at 9am. This is just unacceptable,” he said. He believes that a one-week maximum wait is enough and would be more than efficient.
Lowenfield’s proposal estimates that each ballot box would take about 2 hours to be counted .
There are 2339 ballot boxes from the 10 regions
On his Facebook page, Gunraj said: “You either stand on the side of decency, righteousness and free, fair and credible elections OR you condone rigged elections.
“This nation cannot withstand the imposition of such wanton lawlessness on it!!
“156 days is unacceptable under any circumstance”.
GECOM Secretariat defends plan
GECOM’s Secretariat considered approved decisions by the Commission in preparation of its draft recount workplan
8 April 2020, GEORGETOWN – The Secretariat of the Guyana Elections Commission has taken note of the public ridicule by some Commissioners on the draft workplan for the conduct of the national recount; presented for discussion, amendments and consideration.
Though cognizant that the 156 days proposed for the activity may be quite a lengthy duration in the present circumstance, the Secretariat had to consider matters of law in relation to the procedures to conduct a recount; approved decisions of the Commission and the current COVID-19 pandemic affecting the health situation of the population.
In this regard, the Secretariat considered the request by the Commission for each ballot to be projected on screen, examination of the contents of the ballot box i.e. ascertaining the number of electors on the list, the number of electors who voted, counting votes cast for both General and Regional Election and validation of spoilt, questioned and rejected ballots.
Against this backdrop, the estimated time for one ballot box to be counted was projected to be two hours; utilizing 3 workstations for 10 hours per day (9:00hrs -19:00hrs) at a central location to count 2339 boxes. Hence, the projected duration as indicated.
The Secretariat finds the comments by the Commissioners absurd, distasteful and unethical particularly since they are aware that the proposal considered the decisions of the Commission and its content is still being discussed for finalization.
