Day eight of the national recount process concluded yesterday with another 56 ballot boxes being processed – the highest number to be completed in a day since the process started – bringing the total number of boxes counted so far to 367 of the 2,339.
Public Relations Officer of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Yolanda Ward, during her final update to the media last evening said that of the 56 ballot boxes, 11 were from Region Two and 15 each were from Regions One, Three and Four.
Ward noted that the counting of ballot boxes in Region One is “almost to an end”. Region One has a total of 99 boxes. Six more boxes remain to be processed for this region.
She added that once this is completed, processing for Region Five will begin today.
As it relates to tabulation of the results, Ward noted that 350 Statements of Recount (SOR) were generated for both the General and Regional election yesterday.
The exercise which commenced last Wednesday is being conducted at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC).
As the process continues, a major issue which continues to arise is the pace of the exercise.
The recount which is being scrutinized by a high-level three-member team from CARICOM commenced last Wednesday. Counting is being done on a daily basis for an 11-hour period starting from 8 am and concluding at 7 pm.
It had been proposed that the entire process could be completed within 25 days but so far there has been an average of less than 50 ballot boxes recounted each day. At that rate the Commission would need twice as many days to process the 2,339 boxes generated at the March 2, 2020 elections.
Visit postponed
On Tuesday, a decision was taken by GECOM to approach the National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF) for advice on increasing both the number of work stations and the working hours for the National Recount.
Currently, the recount is being executed at 10 work stations.
The NCTF was scheduled to visit the ACCC yesterday to survey the facilities and to give advice and/or discuss proposals that the Commission has made in relation to the work stations. However, Ward yesterday afternoon informed the media that the visit was postponed to 10 am today.
She said the Commission did not meet yesterday either and that is scheduled for today.
Both, the General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Bharrat Jagdeo and Opposition- nominated GECOM Commissioner Sase Gunraj yesterday told the media that they are in support of an increase in the number of workstations.
They said that with this, the efficiency of the recount is likely to improve.
During his address to the media yesterday, Jagdeo said he was confident that persons in the exercise can be safeguarded from COVID-19.
“The increase, I am sure you can have an increase in the workstations and if all the protocols are observed, like when you go through here they test you, first of all for temperature, you have to wear your mask, enforce all the protocols that you can be safe,” he said.
Meanwhile, Gunraj said that the Commission has “unanimously” agreed and supported the idea of the expansion in the number of counting stations.
Gunraj said that the task force stated that they were “otherwise” engaged thus resulting in them being unable to visit the ACCC yesterday which resulted in a delay of a decision. “As we speak we are unable to have the presence of that team from the COVID-19 task force because we were told that they are otherwise engaged and as a consequence was unable to meet with us today,” he said.
The delay of visit, Gunraj said has also resulted in several other delays.
“…….So we are delayed and the delay in the COVID-19 task force, meeting with us has led to several other delays. As a result of not being able to meet and discuss with the task force, there was no new issues to be raised and deliberated upon by the commission. So as a consequence, the Commission did not meet and it was our stated intention as well after the meeting of the Commission, we would have met with a delegation of the People’s Progressive Party to discuss some of the issues that they have raised and requested a meeting to discuss and thereafter to meet and discuss with the coalition APNU+AFC some of the issues that they have raised. So all of those consequential meetings were not possible as a consequence of the first meeting not going on,” Gunraj explained.
“Frivolous” objections
Jagdeo yesterday told reporters that his party wants the recount to be completed and for a declaration to be made.
“We want it to be done expeditiously, transparently and whatever the outcome is, there must be a declaration based on the recount,” he said.
He stated that his party believes that the NCTF is being used to slow down the process by enforcing guidelines such as social distancing.
According to Jagdeo, the recount is at a stage where the main concern should be to accelerate the rate at which the process is going.
“So when you look at the average, based on the number of boxes done per a region and you divide those by seven days and then you divide by the number of work stations, you would see that Region One would have like 3.6 boxes per a day and Region Four they are only doing about 2.4 boxes per a day or 2.7 boxes per a day. That is in a 10 hours stretch. So that gives you an idea of the sloth of the process,” he said.
Jagdeo accused the coalition of making “frivolous” objections during the exercise, causing delays in the counting exercise. He said the workstations, particularly those in Regions Three and Four are being “marred” by “frivolous” objections from the incumbent APNU+AFC coalition.
“….Many people look at the number of boxes. They say 50 boxes done per a day but when you look at a work station, particularly in Region Four and Region Three, these are being marred with objections from APNU, frivolous objections and therefore they are only managing to do less than 3 boxes per a day in a 10 hours stretch so that has to change,” Jagdeo noted.
He further stated that his party had “predicted” this type of behaviour even before the start of the recount.
“We said that APNU knows that they lost the elections. They have their Statements of Poll (SOP). They refuse to release the statements of poll because those show that they lost and so the excuse would have been to try to use things that are not germane to the outcome of the elections to create an environment where they can argue for an annulment of the poll and fresh elections,” Jagdeo said.
Return of Carter Center observers
Prior to the commencement of the recount, GECOM had invited all observer missions which had been accredited for the March 2 elections to return to observe the recount of the votes cast.
The CARICOM team is entitled to be present during the recount and the regional tabulations which follow. At the end of the process the CARICOM team shall submit a report to the Commission which may include their observations, recommendations, and conclusions.
The Carter Center which is one of the five missions so far accredited had attempted to have one member of its team travel to Guyana last Monday to observe the process but failed to secure permission from the Government.
Jagdeo and Gunraj said that they will continue to press for the return of the Carter Center team.
According to Jagdeo, his party had learnt that a number of flights are being accommodated by the Task Force since the Carter Center team was denied permission to enter the country.
“We learnt that this Government, the COVID Task force has given ExxonMobil permission some eight times to bring in a large number of people from all over the world and to take people out but they can’t give permission for three persons to come from the Carter Center… who would have covered the same COVID protocol that the CARICOM representatives underwent, that is they would have been tested before they come here,” Jagdeo argued.
This, according to Jagdeo is a clear indication that the Government does not want the presence of the international observers here.
Gunraj said that the task force’s “continuing” prohibition or avoidance of permitting the Carter Center into the country is “suspicious” despite the circumstances since one of the reasons they advanced for them being unable to visit the ACCC yesterday was because they were dealing with “some flight at the airport”.
“That only lends support to the fact that some categories of persons are being allowed into the country and it begs the question as to why there is this continuing prohibition or avoidance of the grant of permission to the Carter Center team who have stated and restated their willingness and availability to join us and to continue the scrutiny that they have started in these elections even prior to the March 2nd elections and in continuance of the observation and scrutiny that they have lent to our electoral process for over 30 years. So that is suspicious if you ask me,” Gunraj stated.
