Sixty ballot boxes from the March 2nd general elections were recounted yesterday – the highest daily total since the exercise started 12 days ago – and the tabulated result for District One was signed off by all parties even as GECOM continues to wait for the COVID-19 task force to approve more work stations to speed the process up.
Yesterday’s tally brought the total number of completed boxes to 588 out of 2,339.
Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Yolanda Ward said 13 boxes from Region 2, 15 from District 3, 14 from District 4 and 18 from District 5 were completed. According to Ward nine out of 136 boxes are still to be counted for District 2 and should they be able to complete them today, they will commence counting District 6 ballots.
Ward told Stabroek News that the commission is still awaiting a report from the National COVID-19 Task Force on increasing the number of work stations to meet its deadline of 25 days.
The commission was promised a report 24 hours after a site visit on Thursday by the task force. The visit had come after GECOM had signalled its intention to have six additional work stations. Ward last night told this newspaper that since the visit there has been no correspondence from the task force. The lack of communication has been seen as an attempt to stymie a speeding up of the recount. The task force has also attracted a lot of flak for rejecting the return of Carter Center observers.
During President David Granger’s visit to the recount site yesterday, he noted that there was no discussion on the request made to the task force by GECOM.
GECOM had been expected to make a decision last Friday on adding six more work stations to the 10 currently operating. The plan to add to the 10 work stations arose as the recounting process has not achieved the pace needed to complete the count in the 25 days mooted by the gazetted order.
The PRO further related that a meeting by the GECOM commissioners is scheduled for today. She said that she was not privy to the items on the agenda.
In a key development, all parties signed off on the tabulation for the first district to be completely counted – District One – even though there were differing positions among APNU+AFC representatives.
By signing the certificate of tabulation, the parties accepted that the tabulated results for District 1 are true and correct as drawn from the statements of recount. APNU+AFC member Aubrey Norton however claimed that the results are not authentic since 45 of the ballot boxes counted “can be clearly linked to irregularities and electoral fraud.”
On this note, Norton said his party will be withholding its signature from the Certification of Tabulation since the discrepancies found by his party were not addressed.
“I don’t know that there can be certification of any results at this stage. We have a number of questions that were raised and we believe that they have to be revisited and dealt with before you can talk about anything like a certification… I don’t think that we can certify any document,” Norton argued as he registered his concern over the results for District 1.
However, his party’s tabulation agent, Daniel Seeram, after objecting to the phrase of “Total valid votes cast” and having that amended to “Total votes cast” attached his signature to the Certificate of Tabulation, Ward said.
She noted that Seeram’s objections were based on the fact that the party had raised concerns over a number of anomalies identified during the recount process.
Norton had however stressed that before the party can sign on to the Certificate of Tabulation GECOM should review all complaints of irregularities.
“There will have to be reviews and a decision will have to be taken from it, a lot of people are talking about votes tabulated. There are votes that are tabulated that are in question and we raise questions about and many will have to go in front the entire GECOM body to be dealt with,” Norton said.
He argued further that the “bloated” list of electors also contributed to the concerns his party has since it is a gateway for questions on the credibility of the electoral process.
“I am suggesting that the existence of a bloated list produces conditions that are (conducive) to irregularities and fraud and brings into question the credibility of the electoral process,” he said.
Despite the numerous claims of irregularities in the electoral process by the incumbent, there has been no evidence produced to support them.
Meanwhile, PPP executive member Anil Nandlall expressed satisfaction at the fact that GECOM staff are working faster to deliver results on the recount process. In the same breath, he raised concerns that containers storing ballot boxes are being closed off at 5.30 pm when the count ends at 7 pm.
“…we believe that is unacceptable for a premature closure of work since we have a backlog when one takes into count the average output daily and 25 days deadline and therefore steps must be taken to bring greater rapidity to the process… we will like to see the hours specified in the order rigidly enforced and complied with,” Nandlall lamented, as he said that his party remains optimistic that additional counting stations will be established thereby expediting the count.
He pointed out that the recount process in District Four is agonizingly slow as one work station took several hours yesterday afternoon to finish counting a single box. Nandlall nonetheless acknowledged that there were a lot of votes in the box but said he believes too much time was spent on recounting the box.
Nandlall also welcomed President Granger’s statement yesterday that he will accept the final declaration by GECOM.
The recount process is currently being scrutinized by a three-member team from CARICOM and other international and local observers. The recount is currently taking place at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.
