The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is slowly increasing the number of ballot boxes it processes daily in the National Recount of votes from the March 2nd general elections. Yesterday, the ten workstations operating at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) were able to complete 53 boxes moving the total number of boxes recounted to 261 in six days.
The total number to be recounted is 2,339.
According to GECOM Public Relations Officer, Yolanda Ward, the Commission is looking forward to a continued increase in the pace of the recount.
“We look forward to, as the days progress, continuing to build momentum in terms of the boxes completed as well as the minimization of the issues we continue to have…now that we’ve ironed out some of these challenges we look forward to an increased pace,” she told media operatives last evening.
She noted too that in keeping with Clause 1 of the recount order the Commission will meet today to decide whether or not to extend the 25-day timeline.
Ward also explained that of the 53 boxes recounted, 15 were from Region One, 11 from Region Two, 15 from Region Three and 12 from Region Four. She further explained that a total of 247 Statements of Recount (SoR) for the general elections and 235 for regional elections were tabulated at the conclusion of the work day.
While the actual count appears to be moving smoothly there continues to be disagreement on the value of the Observation Report with the opposition parties stressing that the incumbent is using this report and other methods to slow the process.
According to agent for the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Anil Nandlall the Commission was forced to cut free the APNU+AFC locks on several containers after the coalition agents refused to allow new ballot boxes to be removed after 5 pm.
“The Commission, the PPP/C and the APNU+AFC have keys for these containers which hold the ballot boxes. All three are required to open the container. [Yesterday] at 5 pm the APNU+AFC agent refused to open the lock and as a result GECOM was forced to cut the lock,” he shared, claiming that this action was part of the Coalition efforts to delay the process.
There was no response by APNU+AFC to this allegation yesterday.
Nandlall added that his party is concerned that the process is likely to extend beyond the 25 days provided for in the Order.
According to Nandlall, they will be asking the Commission at a meeting today to increase the number of workstations so as to expand the number of boxes counted each day.
He declined to name a number of stations which may be added stressing that the details should be worked out by the logistics team of the secretariat.
Six parties
This concern was also raised by six parties which met with the Commission yesterday.
The group which included The Citizens Initiative (TCI), the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP), A New and United Guyana (ANUG), The New Movement (TNM), Change Guyana (CG) and the United Republican Party (URP) requested a meeting to discuss issues such as “the slothfulness of the tabulation process.”
Speaking with the media after the engagement Kian Jabour of ANUG explained that while the time is secondary to transparency the country is waiting for the process to end.
He said that his party is extremely satisfied with the work GECOM is doing in terms of transparency but has sought make suggestions on small alterations that can improve the time. One of the suggestions is a quick-answer form to address issues which keep recurring.
Jabour also noted that his party cannot support the provisions of Clause 14 of the Order which states that the report generated at the end of the recount will go to the Commission for deliberation after which it will “determine whether it should request the Chief Election Officer to use the data as the basis for the submission of a report under section 96 of the Representation of the People Act Cap 1:03.”
“I cannot agree with the commission having to go back and deliberate on these numbers being presented to the public. That is asking for trouble,” he said.
According to Jabour this and other concerns were presented by the small parties to the three-person CARICOM scrutinising team with whom they met after the Commission.
Meanwhile, the governing APNU+AFC continues to claim that irregularities occurred at several polling stations including migrants supposedly casting ballots. Despite this repeated claim the party refuses to state that the Elections were not credible.
Coalition agent Leonard Craig told the media that the observations raised by the party “provides lawmakers and GECOM with evidence of what is possible, or what were possible infractions on elections day and we can go to Parliament and change some of those laws. GECOM can adjust some of its administrative procedures on that day and all these things have implications for these types of activities.”
He added that while the irregularities are unlikely to affect the declaration of results they can serve as evidence in an elections petition.
“Even though you raise anomalies on Election Day, you allow GECOM to make a declaration and then you go to an election petition,” he explained.
GECOM Commissio-ners Vincent Alexander and Sase Gunraj were also clear that objections, observations or irregularities identified will have no impact on the results unless there is evidence.
“If objections are made without evidence those objections will have no impact on the process,” Alexander said reminding that death certificates and migration records will be needed to substantiate the claims that have been made.
“At the end of the day I know if it is not true it will have no impact,” Alexander added.
Meanwhile, in a statement last night, the PPP said that the recount process is not only unravelling the “vile fraud” perpetrated in relation to the results of electoral district #4 but is also confirming the accuracy of the Statements of Poll in the PPP/C’s possession and clearly establishing that APNU+AFC lost those elections.
“In recognition, APNU+AFC has embarked upon an orchestrated and ludicrous campaign to undermine and discredit election day’s activities by concocting a series of reckless and unsubstantiated allegations that dead and migrated persons voted”, the PPP added.
It said that the APNU+AFC allegations are “insulting the collective intelligence and competence of not only the Presiding Officers, Assistant Presiding Officers but their own polling agents, some of whom were their Candidates to the Poll – all of whom, were present in polling stations throughout the country and who scrutinized the process from beginning to end, counted the ballots in each polling station and then signed on to the Statements of Poll, confirming the veracity of those documents, which coincidently, APNU+AFC continues to hide from public scrutiny”.
The PPP said that APNU+AFC seems to have forgotten that their ill-fated dossier which they formally submitted to the United States Department of Justice, claimed that they won the March 2, elections which they described as free and fair.
