The high-level team of scrutineers from CARICOM for the recounting of votes from the March 2nd general elections is to travel to Guyana on Thursday following the approval of a chartered flight by the National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF).
A statement from the taskforce last evening noted that its statutory meeting yesterday approved the request from CARICOM for officials to travel to Guyana on Thursday, April 30th for the purposes of overseeing the recount of ballots by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
CARICOM had written earlier yesterday requesting approval for the departure and landing of a chartered flight from Guyana to collect the members of the high-level team scheduled to scrutinize the National Recount.
The letter dispatched by CARICOM Secretary General Irwin LaRocque had also asked for a similar arrangement for the team’s return upon completion of the recount exercise.
LaRocque indicated to the taskforce that arrangements would be made for the members of the team to be tested in their respective country, using the WHO approved PCR COVID-19 test before embarking to Guyana.
He has also requested that similar testing be administered on completion of the exercise before the team departs Guyana.
The team has been invited to scrutinize and lend validity to the recount which GECOM has announced could take 25 days. The start date is subject to the arrival of CARICOM’s team.
On Friday, GECOM finalized a 13-point Order which will govern the recount process.
According to this Order seen by Stabroek News, the recount will be conducted each day including weekends and holidays, from 08:00 hours to 18:00 hours at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, for a period of 25 days, subject to review, no later than the end of the first week, until its completion.
It explains that the recount shall be conducted by employees of the Commission, under the direct supervision of the Chief Election Officer or his delegate.
“The following persons are entitled to be present: the CARICOM High-Level Team, representatives of political parties that contested the said elections, International and Local Observer teams accredited by Guyana Elections Commission, advisors to the Guyana Elections Commission, members of the Commission and such other persons authorized by the Guyana Elections Commission,” it notes.
Controversially it also states that the recount shall begin with four of the ten electoral districts being tabulated simultaneously.
Districts One, Two, Three and Four shall be counted first while the count for Districts Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten shall begin once One, Two and Three are completed.
It is expected that the tabulation for the most controversial district, District Four, which is also the largest electoral district shall not be completed until the end of the tabulation process.
This District’s results has led to a delaying in the declaration of the March 2 Elections after Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo presented two discredited declarations. The first declaration was vitiated by the High Court while the second has been rejected by opposition parties and described as not credible by five international observer groups.
The recount order says that after the process, the CARICOM high-level team shall issue a report to the Commission which may include their observations, recommendations, and conclusions which report “may be considered by the Commission”.
CARICOM has not yet disclosed the makeup of the team but it is expected to comprise five senior officials who journeyed here in March for an earlier recount agreed to by President David Granger and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo only for it to be scuttled by a candidate of Granger’s party going to the High Court and securing an injunction. That injunction was later discharged by the Full Court and the Guyana Court of Appeal did not vary this when the matter came before it.
The five who made the aborted visit were Angela Taylor, Chief Electoral Officer, Barbados; Anthony Boatswain, former Finance Minister, Gre-nada; Francine Baron, Chair of the Team and former Attorney General and Foreign Minister, Dominica; Fern Narcis-Scope, Chief Elections Officer, Trinidad and Tobago; Cynthia Barrow-Giles, Senior Lecturer, Department of Government, UWI.
