With the tedious recount of votes from the March 2nd general elections now complete, all eyes are now on the CARICOM observer mission and GECOM.
The verdict of the three-person CARICOM team is seen as having special weight in the process leading to a final certification of the election result by GECOM.
Today at 3 pm representatives of 10 political parties, two international and several local observer groups will return to the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) for the last time.
They will be presented with two sheets of legal size paper which nine of the 10 groups will sign. These papers, the declaration of the recounted votes for the General and Regional Elections in District Four represent the end of stage one of the 33-day National Recount.
So in essence the recount will end exactly where it started in District Four.
The results of the tabulation have confirmed that the opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) won the General Elections by 15,416 votes and though the incumbent has refused to accept these results as valid, the process has moved on.
The country now awaits the submission to GECOM of a report from Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield. His report is expected to cover not only the numbers tabulated but also include a summary of the contents of 2,339 observation reports generated over the 33 days.
The incumbent APNU+AFC has argued that the irregularities in these reports “demonstrate a pattern of manipulation of the electoral process.”
Leader of the coalition, President David Granger has publicly claimed that unstamped ballots, deceased and migrant voters and missing poll books appear to be intentional actions.
Despite this claim the Organisation of American States has deemed the recount process credible and a representative of A New United Guyana (ANUG) Mark Defrance told the media yesterday that the 33- day tabulation process was smooth and stressed that these numbers now public are a true reflection of the vote cast.
According to information broadcast by the Commission a total of 464,506 ballots were cast. This means that 70.3% of the 660,998 registered electors showed up on polling day, a decrease from the 71.3% who voted in 2015.
A total of 4,211, 0. 9%, of the ballots cast were rejected while 460,295 valid votes were counted making the quota for one seat 7,082.
The 233,336 votes secured by the PPP/C means that party will hold 33 of the 65 seats in Guyana’s National Assembly, an absolute majority. Its closest rival the incumbent APNU+AFC has secured 217, 920 votes which has earned it a total of 31 seats. The “remainder” seat will be held by the “joinder list” which includes A New United Guyana (ANUG), the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) and The New Movement (TNM). These three parties have amassed a total of 5,214 votes.
Notably the LJP having earned the third largest number of votes, 2,657, would’ve have held the seat on its own were it not part of the “joinder.”
Of the four other parties who contested the General Elections only one earned more than 1,000 votes. That party, Change Guyana secured 1,953 while The Citizenship Initiative earned 680, People’s Republic Party earned 832 and the United Republic Party won 360 votes.
Cumulatively the smaller parties secured 9,039 or 2% of the votes cast, a significant increase from the 2,023 or 0.2% gained by the four small parties who contested in 2015.
Also speaking with reporters yesterday was PPP/C Executive member Anil Nandlall who said that the recount was an example of the rule of law prevailing over anarchy.
He reiterated that attempts by the Region Four Returning Officer to redistribute votes cast was clear electoral fraud and said that his party now awaits a declaration from GECOM so that Irfaan Alli their presidential candidate can be sworn in as President of Guyana.
The timeline for this declaration depends in part on Lowenfield who must submit to the Commission a report of these results as well as a summary of the observation reports generated for each ballot box.
The order governing the recount provides for Lowenfield to submit his report on or before June 13. The CEO therefore has five days to compile this report. This will be his second report on the March 2 Elections. The first was submitted on March 14, one day after Mingo fraudulently declared that APNU+AFC had won the District by 59, 129 votes.
The actual difference according to the recount is 36,021.
At the time of Lowenfield’s submission Mingo and the Commission were before the High Court for contempt of court since Mingo had failed repeatedly to tabulate results using the lawful Statements of Poll.
His submission also came at a time when President David Granger and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo had agreed to have a National Recount scrutinized by the Caribbean Community.
GECOM Chairperson Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh decided that the report submitted by Lowenfield would be held in abeyance until after the recount.
The recount has since exposed Mingo’s tabulation as inaccurate. In fact it shows that in his declaration he inflated the votes for the APNU+AFC by 20,000 while the PPP/C’s votes were decreased by 3,000.
