As another statutory electoral deadline draws closer, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has still not decided on the logistics of the proposed recount of votes cast on March 2, 2020.
This continued delay has led one Commissioner to question the Secretariat’s willingness to implement the decisions made by the Commission.
Article 69 of the Constitution provides that the first parliamentary session after a dissolution should be held no later than four months from the end of the preceding session. This should mean that the next session of Parliament is due on or before April 30, 2020 as President David Granger dissolved the 11th Parliament on December 30, 2019.
There are however no preparations in place to hold such a sitting since GECOM has not yet officially declared the results of the Elections. In fact no preparations have begun for the holding of a recount, one month after the Commission first decided to hold a national recount.
“This failure by the Secretariat to carry out the clear instructions of the Commission begs the question as to whether the Chief Election Officer and Deputy Chief Election Officer, who sit in Commission meetings, are incompetent and/or unwilling to carry out the decisions of the Commission,” Opposition- nominated Commissioner Sase Gunraj told Stabroek News last evening.
He was referring to the fact that the Secretariat did not submit an amended proposal yesterday for the recount as expected following lengthy discussions at GECOM’s meeting on Thursday.
Last week, Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield proposed 156 days for the recount of the ballots cast during the General and Regional Elections. This was labelled “untenable” by the Opposition- nominated Commissioners who submitted a counter-proposal which reduced the number of days to 10.
The main differences in the two proposals related to the number of counting stations which had been increased to 20 from the three that Lowenfield proposed and the time for the counting of each ballot box which was halved to one hour. Additionally the Commissioners had proposed that Region 4 ballots be counted simultaneously with those of the other Regions.
Both Gunraj and Government-nominated Commissioner Vincent Alexander told reporters yesterday that the Commission had expected Lowenfield to use Thursday’s marathon discussions to amend his proposal.
Stressing that his expectation was to receive a draft plan for the recount, Alexander said he is not certain about any timelines.
“With how things are going I live in hope…hopefully I won’t die in despair,” he told reporters yesterday when asked if a plan would be finalized today.
Gunraj expressed a similar frustration stating that the secretariat returned after the Easter weekend to a request to have “inconsequential issues” such as the role of Commissioners in the recount process clarified.
“We thought we were clear and [Thursday’s] discussion would translate into an amended document from the secretariat, unfortunately the secretariat claimed to still need clarification so we did not get a new document,” he lamented.
This document is now expected to be presented today at a meeting scheduled for 10:30 am. Also expected is a site visit to the Arthur Chung Conference Centre so that the Commission and Secretariat can settle on the number of stations which can be safely located in the compound.
Meanwhile GECOM Chair Claudette Singh has dispatched to the Secretary General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Irwin LaRoque, a letter requesting that CARICOM provide a team to offer “validation” of the process.
“They have been communicated with. We do not as yet have a feedback as far as I know,” Alexander said.
The Community had previously provided such a team which was forced to leave after a candidate for the APNU+AFC applied for and received injunctions blocking the recount process.
The aborting of the mission led CARICOM Chair, Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley to state that there appeared to be forces against a recount.
