With six counting days left in its original 25-day schedule, GECOM has recounted only 48% of the ballot boxes from the March 2nd general elections prompting deepening concerns about what it will do to expedite the process.
The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has maintained a stony silence on the timeframe and whether more work stations will be added to the 12 already in place. Yesterday, 75 ballot boxes were recounted, bringing the total processed so far to 1,124 out of 2,339. On Saturday, 85 ballot boxes were recounted.
The ballots are being recounted after controversy sprung up over a fraudulent spreadsheet created for District Four.
Presidential candidate of A New and United Guyana, Ralph Ramkarran yesterday told reporters outside of the recount centre that objections by APNU+AFC during the process have contributed to the slow pace and GECOM should not have entertained these.
It is expected that during the course of today the recounting of ballots from District 8 will begin. Stabroek News’ calculation shows that seven of 158 boxes are still to be counted for District Five. When these are completed District Eight will commence.
Yesterday, 15 ballot boxes were counted for District Three, 19 for District Four, 14 for District 5, 20 for District Six and 7 for District Seven. Districts 1 and 2 have been completed.
Queries to GECOM as to whether the commission has drafted a plan for a possible extension of the 25-day schedule and whether a decision has been taken to increase the number of counting stations went unanswered. GECOM’s timeline expires on May 30th.
Objections
Ramkarran, while speaking to reporters outside of the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) said that GECOM cannot use the district declarations from returning officers prior to the recount to declare a winner from the general and regional elections.
“It is not possible for GECOM to order a recount under the Election Laws (Amendment) Act and at the end of the process to abandon a declaration of that recount and then return to the count and issue a declaration based on the report which has been made to GECOM by the Chief Election Officer in relation to his invitation to make a declaration,” Ramkarran, a Senior Counsel and former Speaker of the National Assembly said.
He noted that GECOM should not have permitted objections to be made during the recount process as such objections are to be made in an elections petition.
“They should not have accepted these objections from the beginning. They should have said record your objections and take them to the election petition court. The commission is not constructed to accommodate a trial, to accommodate an investigatory process to determine whether those allegations are true or not,” Ramkarran argued.
Disappointed
Presidential Candidate of the Liberty and Justice Party Lenox Shuman and Party Executive of the People’s Progressive Party Anil Nandlall both raised concerns at the pace with which the recount is taking place.
They particularly bemoaned the slothful pace in the stations recounting District Four ballots.
Shuman has written Chair of the Commission, (ret’d) Justice Claudette Singh lamenting the slothful process.
“Madam Chair, once again, on behalf of the Liberty and Justice Party, I implore you to kindly re-evaluate the allocation of stations, the artificial cutoff time for boxes to be counted, and the addition of new stations. We would also ask that the commission considers extending time of operations for the recount to be extended beyond 7 pm,” Shuman said in his email.
Meanwhile, Nandlall told reporters yesterday that his party plans to seek an audience with Singh to further reiterate its concerns. He noted that despite promises from the commission, his party is still to see those promises fulfilled.
“It is very disappointing, the promised additional stations have not been established… we were promised that these stations would have been established several days now… we have been agitating for the establishment but it seems that we have been talking to a brick wall. We were promised that these stations would be open but rather than speed increasing we are observing the speed decreasing,” Nandlall said.
Should his party meet with Singh today, he said they will request that the cutoff time for collecting ballot boxes from containers be moved to 6 pm instead of 5.30pm. They will also press for additional counting stations and recommend that staff be paid a higher remuneration for work put in after the cut- off time.
He lamented too the pace with which counting is being done for District Four. This is the largest voting constituency with 879 boxes.
“In fact in Region Four the pace is pathetic, totally deplorable and unacceptable. We have made many proposals to GECOM in addition to the establishment of more stations but… but now after several days we see a non-implementation of that promise. We are beginning have an unfortunate view that there is a deliberate ploy at play to bring greater sloth to the process rather than to accelerate the process,” Nandlall charged yesterday.
