Saying that he “has never seen a more transparent effort to alter the results of an election,” Head of the OAS observer mission to Guyana’s March 2nd elections, Bruce Golding, yesterday reported that the ongoing recount process has exposed glaring instances where the figures presented by Returning Officer of Region Four, Clairmont Mingo, were clearly fiddled.
Golding, who was at the time presenting a report on the preliminary findings of the mission to the Organisation of American States (OAS) Permanent Council, departed from his prepared statement to give a few instances accompanied with ballot box numbers to support his statement concerning the altering of the elections results.
“And permit me here to pause to make a comment. I have never seen a more transparent effort to alter the results of an election,” Golding said as he put aside his prepared statement, which was heard by a number of ambassadors to the OAS, including Guyana’s Riyad Insanally.
In his presentation, which was later deemed by the Deputy Permanent Representative of the US, Alexis Ludwig as “compelling and personal,” and “somewhat disturbing,” Golding pointed out that more than a dozen copies of statements of poll are prepared at each polling station after the ballots are counted on elections night. Following this, he said, one copy is posted on the wall outside of the polling station and each party representative is entitled to a copy.
“You know it takes an extraordinarily courageous mind [he gave a hint of a laugh as he said those two words] to present fictitious numbers when such a sturdy paper trail exists,” Golding, a former Prime Minister of Jamaica asserted.
He told the virtual meeting that the fictitious numbers are being illustrated as the recount is underway and he gave specific examples to demonstrate this.
Golding disclosed that for ballot box #4062, the statement of poll (SoP) had indicated 182 votes for APNU+AFC and 43 votes for the PPP/C. The Returning Officer’s impugned spreadsheet reported those results as 292 votes for APNU+AFC and 33 votes for the PPP/C. However, when the box was recounted this week, the numbers in the Statement of Recount (SoR) were 182 for APNU+AFC and 43 for PPP, “the exact figures that appeared on the statement of poll.”
“I will give another one,” he told those listening as he went on to list box #4063 where the statement of poll showed 15 votes for APNU+AFC against 276 for PPP/C, but the Returning Officer presented the results as 85 votes for APNU+AFC and 246 votes for PPP/C. At the recent recount, Golding said the figures revealed, matched those on the statement of poll.
The SoP issued on elections night for box #4064 presented 70 votes for APNU+AFC and 93 votes for PPP/C, but according to the Returning Officer’s figures, it was 170 votes for APNU+AFC (a hundred more) and 73 votes for PPP/C (twenty less). When the box was recounted, the numbers were 71 for APNU+AFC and 96 votes for PPP/C, as there were four rejected ballots that were considered to be good in the recount process.
And in box #4074 the figures presented on elections night showed 86 votes for APNU+AFC and 84 votes for PPP/C, but in the Returning Officer’s figures there were 140 votes for APNU+AFC and 64 votes for PPP/C. The recount revealed 86 votes for APNU+AFC and 84 for PPP/C “exactly as the original statement of poll had shown”.
“I must pause again, just to indicate, that up to yesterday [Tuesday] 81 boxes had been recounted for Region Four, of those 81 boxes, in 20 of those 81 boxes the votes for APNU+AFC were decreased by 1,536 and the votes for PPP/C were increased by 177 (compared to the Mingo figure). I made the point earlier that I have never seen such a transparent effort to alter elections results,” Golding said.
And both Golding and Ludwig expressed
concerns that the Carter Center has not been granted permission to return to Guyana to complete its observation of the country’s general and regional elections.
Governed by the rule of law
Following Golding’s report, Ambassador Insanally stated that Guyana remains governed by the rule of law.
He acknowledged that after March 2nd there were developments regarding the country’s electoral process which caused a delay in the official declaration of the results. He noted that on March 14th, President David Granger and Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo, agreed to a recount of the votes with a CARICOM team to observe the process. However, the process was delayed by legal challenges which have now added significantly to the jurisprudence related to the country’s electoral laws and procedures “and which served the purpose of removing legal impediments to the recount.”
“This is evidence Mr Chairman, that Guyana remains governed by the rule of law with full respect for the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary. Indeed there has been no breakdown in the rule of law or public order in Guyana,” Insanally asserted.
He pointed out that the elections process is managed by GECOM, an independent body constitutionally charged to conduct and supervise elections, while adding that the executive branch of the government has never tried to influence, interfere with, or instruct GECOM.
He also acknowledged that the electoral process has not been completed but assured that once this is finalised there will be a declaration of results in full accordance with the law, paving the way for the swearing in of the President.
Insanally, also Guyana’s Ambassador to the United States, reminded that President Granger has repeatedly stated that he “shall accept the declaration of the results by the Elections Commission which will allow for a democratically elected Government to be sworn into office.”
He pointed out that the recount is underway and is expected to produce in a transparent manner, credible and final results consistent with the Guyanese electorate.
“Mr Chairman, Guyana is a democratic nation and will remain so,” he declared.
Range of actors
Chronicling the OAS mission’s path in observing the March 2nd elections, Golding noted that it was manned by a 17-member team which engaged with a range of actors prior to the elections which included government officials, political parties and candidates, civil society and other members of the international community.
The mission reviewed existing legislation, regulations, processes and procedures related to the electoral process, to ensure a full understanding of how elections were to be conducted. Several issues of concerns were noted which included severe ethnic polarization in Guyana’s social and political sphere, a reduction in the use of private residences as polling places and concerns raised by the PPP/C that its supporters had been unequally impacted, as well as concerns of the voters’ list having a large amount of persons who have died or migrated since the last comprehensive house-to-house enumeration which was carried out in the run-up to the 2008 elections.
The mission observed both the disciplined services vote on February 21 and main polls on March 2.
He said the mission observed that on both days the voting process was well organised and the polls were conducted in keeping with the provision of the relevant electoral legislations.
But while the electoral process up to the close the polls and the tabulation of results proceeded in accordance with the electoral law in nine of the ten regions, Golding lamented that “the final tabulation of results in Region Four was marred by several issues which regrettably came to taint the overall process and has led to the protracted delay in the declaration of the results.”
He listed the issues as; repeated interruption in the tabulation process for various irregular reasons, including the unavailability of electoral workers to conduct the tabulation as well as repeated disruption in the tabulation room and other areas of the building which served as both the office of the Returning Officer for Region Four and the office of the Chief Election Officer.
The disruptions, according to Golding, typically followed the announcement or action of GECOM officials that undermined the transparency of the process.
“Principal among these was the action of the Returning Officer in abandoning the use of statements of poll in the presence of the authorised party representatives and to rely instead on a spreadsheet of unknown origin which provided results that were significantly different from the statements of poll which party representatives claimed to be in their possession,” Golding said.
Declaration
Further, he reported that another issue was the declaration by Mingo on March 5 while the tabulation process was at a standstill and while a significant number of statements of poll had not been reviewed in the presence of party representatives as is required by law.
“It is of some significance that the declaration which is required to be signed by only the returning officer also carried what appeared to be the signature of the Chairman of the People’s Nation Congress [Volda Lawrence], the major partner in the ruling APNU+AFC alliance,” the head of the OAS’ mission for Guyana’s elections observed.
He also spoke of the physical altercation on the evening of March 5 between the security services and political party representatives at the building housing the returning officer for Region Four. As events escalated, he said, members of the OAS mission were obliged to withdraw. In a statement that same evening, the mission condemned the acts of violence and noted that as the process had not reached its proper conclusion the results announced by Mingo did not meet the established standards.
Golding said that following the incidents of violence the office of the Returning Officer for Region Four was closed, effectively halting the process entirely. He said it remained closed from March 5 to March 12 while matters concerning the tabulation process were addressed in Guyana’s High Court. Specifically, he said, there was an injunction blocking the declaration of results for Region Four until the Returning Officer complied with the electoral law in determining the number of votes cast for each candidate.
And although Acting Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire ruled on March 11 that the Returning Officer must display the statements of poll in determining the results of the elections, he still continued the use of the spreadsheet and it was only after contempt proceedings were filed on March 13 that images of statements of poll were displayed on a screen.
“However, it is important to note that in several instances the numbers appearing on these statements of poll were vastly different from those in the possession of party representatives,” Golding said.
He reported that the Returning Officer issued a new declaration of results just before midnight on March 13.
He said the mission departed Guyana on March 14 after issuing a statement that the process conducted by the Returning Officer for Region Four did not meet the required standard of fairness and transparency and would not be likely to produce a credible results.
Since the departure of the mission, Golding said the general secretariat has remained closely engaged and informed on the development of the electoral process in Guyana which included the arrival of the high-level CARICOM mission on March 14 to supervise the recount, its subsequent departure following an injunction initiated by a candidate of the ruling APNU+AFC coalition. It kept abreast of the court proceedings following the ruling of GECOM on April 3 as it related to the national recount and the later court ruling that cleared the way for the recount.
“The continued reiteration of issues that have already been resolved however, and the insistence of actions that do not materially impact the ballots themselves are creating inordinate delays with some ballot boxes requiring up to five hours to be recounted”, Golding said.
He added that reports from the ground suggest that the recount process will last longer than the projected 25 days unless the pace is significantly improved.
“Greater consistency in the management of the workstation along with efforts to exclude or limit actions that will hinder the hinder their efficiency, may help in this regard,” Golding said, adding that two accredited members of the OAS Mission are here and will observe the process through to its conclusion.
