With only 41% of ballot boxes completed after day 17 of a 25-day recount process, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is to meet today on accelerating the work and how to address claims of irregularities that are being raised by APNU+AFC agents.
GECOM yesterday recounted 87 ballot boxes, a total of 964 of the 2,339 boxes used on Election Day with a little more than a week left in the original 25-day deadline.
Public Relations Officer Yolanda Ward disclosed that of the 87, a total of 19 boxes were counted from District Three, 19 from District Four, 14 from District Five, 24 from District Six and 11 from District Seven. She added that 928 Statements of Recount from the General Elections and 927 from the Regional Elections have been tabulated.
While the Commission had promised, in keeping with the recount order, to update the 25-day timeline within the first week of the recount, this has not occurred. Instead an appeal was made to the National COVID-19 Task Force for an additional six stations. The task force approved two new stations and has since been asked for two more.
Over the three days that the two new stations have been operational the number of boxes processed has jumped by approximately 30 a day.
The GECOM Chairperson has, however, signalled that her intention is to raise the daily number of ballot boxes processed to 100. In keeping with this desire, she has approached the task force for an additional two stations.
Stabroek News understands that a response to this request and a necessary extension of the timeline will be on the agenda of a Commission meeting scheduled for 10 am today.
The Commission is also likely to discuss allegations made by the incumbent coalition that numerous cases of multiple voting occurred since electors who were dead or out of the jurisdiction on March 2 are recorded as having cast ballots in the Elections.
Chairperson Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh has already said that the burden of proof lies with the APNU+AFC.
“I am of the view that, he who asserts must prove,” Singh stressed in a statement on Thursday, while indicating that no decision on the matter has been made at the level of the Commission.
She said that she is personally monitoring the trends based on the allegations in the observation reports and noted that when there are deliberations and decisions at the Commission in relation to claims of anomalies, the outcome would be officially communicated to the political parties and other stakeholders, and particularly the media.
While the coalition has been arguing that GECOM must investigate their claims at least one APNU+AFC agent has no problem with Singh’s position.
Speaking to the media outside the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) yesterday, Aubrey Norton said that the party is prepared to do just that.
“When the time come for proof, it will be there …we expect that at some time we will be expected to produce the evidence…I see nothing wrong with the statement [by Justice Singh]. I know I’m part of a political party which prepares. When the time comes we will be ready to establish that a lot of voters have migrated,” he maintained.
People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Executive Anil Nandlall remained unimpressed by this narrative yesterday.
He reminded the media that immediately after elections Norton and several other members of the incumbent had declared themselves the winner of an election which was free, fair and credible.
According to Nandlall, the fraud occurred not on Elections day but at the Region 4 tabulation centre. He said that his party has been able to identify 87 boxes where District Four Returning Officer (RO) Clairmont Mingo presented fictitious numbers. He told the media that within these boxes it was found that the RO increased the votes allocated to the APNU+AFC by 4,495 while reducing the PPP/C allocation by 758.
This position was mirrored by Timothy Jonas of A New and United Guyana (ANUG), who also spoke with the media.
According to Jonas, figures on Statements of Poll and Statements of Recount have been aligning with each other.
“The only variable is Mr. Mingo’s declaration of what that count was…the only irregularity, the only fraud took place in Ashmins building and then again in Kingston at GECOM’s head office when Mr. Mingo and his officers read from a spreadsheet, numbers which did not exist on the Statements of Poll,” Jonas stressed.
Nandlall went on to criticize the “sloth” with which District Four ballots are being recounted and asked for any new stations established to be allocated to this district, which has the largest number of electors.
His concerns echoed that of the PPP/C Presidential Candidate Irfaan Ali, who yesterday stressed that additional stations could easily move the daily total to 100. He said that District Four continues to be counted at a pace slower than the other regions.
Ali, in a video statement, also restated his party’s position that international observers such as the Carter Center should be allowed to return to Guyana for the recount.
He argued that the same rationale used to allow Guyanese to return home during the COVID-19 pandemic can be used to permit the Center to return, especially as they have committed to adhering to containment measures.
“There is no rationale to deny international observers entry,” he contended, adding that Guyana has a responsibility to adhere to the international agreements on democratic norms to which it is a signatory.
