Only 25 ballot boxes from a total of 2,339 were counted on day one of the long-awaited recount of votes from the March 2 General and Regional Elections and after a late start yesterday, various hiccups and getting used to the procedures, today will give a clearer picture of whether the projection of 25 days for completion will have to be drastically revised.
On a day of tension and drama when dozens of GECOM officials and workers, party agents and observers thronged the Arthur Chung Convention Centre (ACCC) for the process that is seen as vital to ending a two-month-old electoral crisis, the 8 am start was not met as security checks and fine-tuning of the process took extra time.
The ballot box tally was disclosed last evening by Public Relations Officer of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Yolanda Ward who said that out of the 25 ballot boxes counted, seven were from District 1, six from District 2, Seven from District 3 and five from the pivotal District 4.
Once the recount is completed of a ballot box, Ward explained that a statement of recount (SOR) is generated and a copy is provided to each party present in the room and forwarded administratively to the requisite persons.
“It therefore means that we would currently have a total of 50 SOR’s. Because we are talking here of General and Regional elections. So with 25 boxes completed for today, it means we have 25 SOR’s for the General elections and another 25 for the Region elections,” she explained.
“Pick up some speed up”
The national recount which is being scrutinized by a high-level three-member team from CARICOM is expected to last for 25 days but this period is subjected to review within the first week of the recount.
Counting is being done on a daily basis for an 11-hour period starting from 8 am to 7 pm.
The exercise commenced around 10.30 am yesterday, more than two hours after the scheduled time.
Ward yesterday noted that the delay was as a result of a number of reasons but mostly due to the heightening of security at the ACCC where the recount is being done and briefing of the persons present.
“Of course as we indicated from the start … this is going to be a very security conscious environment. It is important for us to have security at such an activity. Also learning from our previous experience. The delay was because of security concerns and briefing of all persons present. To ensure that persons know where their respective work stations are and to provide the details of the modus operandi in terms of our expectation for this activity,” she explained.
Ward noted that the commission anticipated that they will be able to “pick up some speed” with regard to the recount. “Now that everyone is aware of what is the expectation…we anticipate that once they arrive on time to go through the security check….it was quite a lengthy process but once persons arrive early, get into their respective work stations before 8, we will be ready to commence at 8 tomorrow (this) morning,” she said.
“……We hope that party agents and so on will arrive very early to ensure that they go through the necessary security checks so that they will be able to be in the respective work stations now that they know which work station they are placed at, where to find their work stations and all of that so that there will be a prompt 8 o’clock start tomorrow and hopefully that the boxes and the process moves faster so that we will be able to complete a larger number in terms of those boxes,” Ward added.
While representatives from most of the contesting parties including the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) and A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) described the process as relatively smooth a number of concerns were raised.
Presidential candidate of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic, Irfaan Ali said that there were a lot of procedural issues that had to be sorted out.
“We are hoping that having sorted a lot of those issues out, that we will not see these issues reoccurring to slow down the process, to delay the process or to create frustration. We are very concerned about this,” Ali noted.
Meanwhile, former attorney general Anil Nandlall described the first day of the exercise as “unsatisfactory”.
Nandlall said a number of queries are being raised which is enabling time wasting. “We expected the pace to be much more rapid than this because we have an end that we are looking at and if it continues at this rate, it is going to be a very, very (prolonged) exercise,” he said.
According to Nandlall, GECOM had given them an indication that once the issues that arise on the first day are identified and corrected, then the speed will increase rapidly. “And we are hoping that, that would happen,” he said.
He explained that “unnecessary” queries have to be eliminated in the process. “We (urged) do not open the envelopes, do not look at the marked list, do not look at the counter foils because they are not part of the recount of votes. Recount of votes is a recount of the votes cast. And what is causing … a lot of wastage of time is going through, for example, the folio, going through the list and trying to reconcile when there are differences,” he explained.
“So all these unnecessary issues that they are raising are what is contributing significantly to the delay. We want a recount of the ballots and that is what the exercise is about,” Nandlall added.
The process, Nandlall further stated has confirmed the accuracy of the PPP’s statement of polls. “That by and large, 99 percent or so of what has been done today confirms and indicate the accuracy of the PPP’s statements of poll. ….I am saying that all we have done today, the 10 boxes (up to that point), every single one of them has confirmed in a material way, 99% accuracy that the PPP statement of polls is accurate,” he stated.
Issues
During the first day, a number of challenges and issues arose which were bought to the Commission’s attention.
GECOM subsequently held a meeting to address these issues and to discuss the way forward to avoid any future recurrence.
Among some of the issues were the detection of a hole in one of the ballot boxes, absences of poll books, ballot boxes not being counted in sequential order, and the seizing up of locks and misplacing of keys for containers.
Absence of poll books
Ward explained that upon the start of the process it was highlighted that polling books from District 1 had not been returned to GECOM by the Returning Officer, Trevor Harris.
As a result, she said the commission had to make efforts to locate the books. “I know because we are looking particularly at Region One. That we discovered that none of the poll books were present,” Ward said.
She noted that arrangements have since been made to have the poll books transported to Georgetown from Region 1. “And we hope that they will get here maybe by tomorrow (today) or as early as Friday when there is a flight out from that area,” Ward added.
According to Ward, information revealed that one of the poll books might be missing from the total. “..What we had is a situation where party agents were objecting to those poll books as part of their reconciliation process,” she noted.
Ward assured that the issue will be investigated by the Commission so as to ensure there is closure.
The poll book is essentially the log book of the day’s activities. It provides the notes of the presiding officers about what would have transpired during the electoral process on Election Day.
For example, if persons voted with certificates of employment, the number of persons that voted with certificates of employment or persons who voted by proxy.
The poll book also gives details on issues that may have been addressed at the respective poll stations.
Ballot boxes not counted in sequential order
Presidential Candidate for the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) Lenox Shuman told the media that the ballot boxes for none of the districts were being counted in a sequential order.
He charged that this is a clear attempt to derail the recount of District 4. According to Shuman, there was an exchange at about three of the work stations yesterday morning by party agents from APNU+AFC.
“There is a coordinated attempt by the PNC to derail Region Four count…It seems as though they had this down to a time that at such and such time, they’re going to engage in this because we know that the lady, her daughter and another agent all sought to disrupt the Region Four count at the very same time so that cannot be something by chance. It’s obviously an attempt to undermine and derail the Region Four count at this point,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Executive member of the APNU+AFC David Patterson told reporters yesterday morning that the ballot boxes were not packed in a sequential order in the containers thus causing difficulties in locating the boxes as per label.
“Unfortunately another delay will be because they were not packed sequentially and that will be another delay because they are starting from Ballot Box one, two and three so they will have to do some searching,” Patterson said.
In relation to this issue, Ward told the media last evening that this occurred because of the manner in which the ballot boxes were packed in the containers.
“….So what we sought to do is whatever box was to the front and accessible, to remove that particular box first and have the count commence…… And so in the sequential order, it means that, that count will start from the East Bank area rather than the South Georgetown area,” Ward said.
She assured that an adjustment will be made today to ensure that counting is done in a sequential order.
Early closure
The recount is being done at ten work stations.
However, the recount in station 9, one of the stations designated to count ballots for Region 4 concluded about two hours before the scheduled time yesterday afternoon.
Party representatives had reported to the media that this was done after a party agent from APNU+AFC related that she has to travel out of Georgetown to return home and if another ballot box was opened it would not have been completed in keeping with the time.
Nandlall told the media that upon learning of this he had complained to the Chairperson of GECOM (Ret’d) Justice Claudette Singh and Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield.
“Station Number Nine counting Region 4 ballots have closed operations already, two hours before today’s scheduled closure…and that is totally unacceptable….I am also told that Ms Carol Joseph who is also part of that station, she indicated that she has to travel all the way to West Coast Berbice and she requested that the operations close prematurely. That is totally unacceptable,” Nandlall argued.
Ali said that if this was not done, maybe the counting of another ballot box would have been completed. “We cannot have situations like those. The working days, defined by the timeline, we could have at least completed one more box at that station today,” Ali said.
However, GECOM’s government-appointed Commissioner Vincent Alexander said that the security of the ballot boxes is of utmost importance and as such the counting of one ballot box has to be completed before another can begin.
Alexander explained that if another ballot box was opened, it would have not been completed before the deadline. “If we start with a box of 400 people if will go beyond the stipulated time…GECOM cannot leave anything to chance. We are not going to cut a seal and leave that seal unattended,” he said.
Hole in ballot box
Shortly after the exercise commenced yesterday, a hole was unearthed on one of the ballot boxes.
The container in question held ballot boxes from Regions 1, 7 and 9.
According to Ward, the discovery was made when the container was opened to start the process. “What happened there is that upon inspection we found that the container that it was stored in, there was a hole right where that box was stored, apparently from the drippings through that container, it would have gotten into the ballot box,” she said.
The water was drained from the box but this could affect the visibility of the vote. “I am not sure how visible the contents of that box will be, it will only be determined when the box is actually opened,” Ward noted.
Upon the end of yesterday’s exercise, Ward told the media that the Commission has not made a decision as to how this issue will be dealt with as yet.
A minor delay was occasioned when one political party could not find their key for the District 4 Container and an unidentified lock was found on the District 3 container. These locks were cut open by GECOM.
The national recount will continue this morning at 8am.
GECOM is executing the recount as an exercise of the authority vested under Article 162 of the Constitution and pursuant to Section 22 of the Elections Law (Amendment) Act, No. 15 of 2000 in the Commission.
These provisions have been cited as “necessary and expedient for the removal of difficulties which have arisen in respect of the finalization and declaration of results for the General and Regional Elections held on the 2nd March 2020.”
The electoral crisis mushroomed over the count for District Four, when its Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo was accused on March 5th of presenting fictitious figures on a spreadsheet. Five major observer groups had found his tabulation not to be credible, including the CARICOM observer mission.
An order which governs the national recount was gazetted on Monday. According to the Order, the recount shall commence with the allocation of 10 work stations as follows: District 1 – two work stations; District 2 – two work stations; District 3 – three work stations and District 4 – three work stations.
The recount for District 4 shall continue at the three work stations assigned to it while the recounts for Districts 5 through 10 shall be conducted based on the completion of, and at the work stations assigned to, Districts 1, 2 and 3.
Eight of the work stations will have a maximum of 14 persons comprising four GECOM staff, party agents and observers. Two work stations will have 10 persons.
The actual wording of the order provides that there shall be installed in each workstation a facility which shall capture and broadcast, only, the following: A picture of the ballot box depicting the state in which it is delivered to the workstation; An audio feed of the recount process while an audio-visual facility is expected to be established in the tabulation centre which shall broadcast live the entire tabulation process.
