After adding two workstations, the Guyana Elections Commission was yesterday able to raise its daily total for recounted ballot boxes to 76. This is the highest daily total recorded over the 14 days of the National Recount for the March 2nd general and regional elections which has processed a total of 718 of 2,339 boxes.
According to GECOM public relations officer, Yolanda Ward, those boxes recounted include 18 from Electoral District Three, 14 from District Four, 18 from District Five, 18 from District Six and eight from District Seven.
This is the first day that District Seven is being recounted. Ballot boxes from this District are being processed at one of the two new stations. At the current rate this station would need 10 days to completely recount the 84 boxes generated after polling in that district.
In fact, with GECOM having completed a mere 30% of all ballot boxes, the Commission would need to increase its daily pace to 143 boxes so as to complete the process in the 25 days prescribed in the Recount Order.
Alternatively, with a daily average of 51 boxes the Commission would need to increase its timeline by 31 days.
The Order which governs the recount specified that the Commission could at the end of the first week re-evaluate the timelines but as the second week comes to an end there has been no communication on the way forward.
A proposal to add an additional six stations was rejected by the National COVID-19 Task Force which instead approved two new stations. The taskforce in making the recommendation expressed concern that the tabulation centre was congested and GECCOM staff and party agents were not adhering to containment and mitigation measures established by WHO/PAHO to prevent the spread of the Novel Corona Virus (COVID-19).
The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) prime ministerial candidate Mark Phillips told reporters yesterday outside the Recount Centre that he was hoping that the Commission could establish more workstations as soon as possible as the recount is “behind the curve.”
“By my calculation, we should be counting somewhere about 93 or more boxes per day in order to reach the 25-day deadline and you know better than I do that we are far from doing ninety-three,” Phillips, who has not been in the public eye over the last two months, said.
Yesterday, the Commission also completed the tabulation of the Statements of Recount generated from District Two.
Notably as was the case with District One, the results from the tabulation of the district correlate with the numbers declared on March 4 by Returning Officer Roxanne Smith. In Smith’s declaration she noted that 26,623 votes had been cast in the District at the General Elections. The recount puts this number at 26,621.
Compared
A New and United Guyana (ANUG) has recorded 85 votes in the recount compared with 86 in the declaration. Change Guyana has recorded 151 compared with 149 in the declaration, the Liberty and Justice Party recorded 121 compared to 120 in the declaration while The Citizenship Initiative (TCI) and the United Republican Party have all recorded the same number of votes in each process: 18 and 64 respectively while the People’s Republican Party (PRP) has recorded 57 votes in the recount and 55 in the March 4 declaration.
The APNU+AFC Coalition has in turn recorded 7,340 in the recount compared to 7,343 in the declaration while the PPP/C has recorded 18,785 in the recount and 18,788 in the previous declaration.
It is expected that today these results will be certified when agents from all the political parties which contested attach their signatures to a document which reflects the numbers generated.
Any objection to this process is likely to come from the incumbent APNU+AFC which continues to claim that the elections were marred by irregularities even though it had earlier claimed victory.
APNU+AFC Polling agent Ganesh Mahipaul reiterated this position to media operatives yesterday when he said that his party has conducted extensive field work to ascertain which electors on the Official List of Electors were dead or out of the jurisdiction on March 2.
Mahipaul stressed that their migration records have been confirmed by relatives and neighbours and noted that “evidence would be provided at the right time.”
Pressed repeatedly on why his party has been unable to provide the media even one document to back up their claims of multiple voting, Mahipaul acknowledged that they currently have only “hearsay evidence” but maintained that GECOM can and should access the official records to confirm these allegations.
The incumbent also continued to claim that there appears to be a pattern of ballots cast in their favour being unstamped.
PPP/C Executive Member Anil Nandlall told reporters that GECOM in responding to this claim cannot act outside the scope of the law when it comes to unstamped ballots.
Guyana’s electoral laws prescribe that a ballot which does not bear the official six-digit stamp of the specific polling station is to be rejected for “want of official mark.”
The stamp is to be affixed at the time the ballot paper is handed to the voter.
Ward had told reporters on Monday that that the Commission is examining three categories of unstamped ballots.
These included ballots cast by members of the disciplined services which were to be intermixed at identified polling stations, ballots which were stamped at either the General or Regional sections but not the other and those ballots which are completely without stamp.
She explained that the Commission has not yet made a decision in this matter but is expected to do so after more deliberations.
Nandlall however stressed that Guyana’s Elections are governed by laws.
“GECOM will have to turn to the legal provisions,” he reiterated.
