…GECOM chair maintains, as PPP, small parties fret over decision
… ‘Coalition’ urges respect for Commission’s ruling

CHAIRPERSON of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Justice Claudette Singh has maintained that live-streaming of the recount process would be a violation of Section 90 of the Representation of the People Act, but the opposition parties are arguing that this is not so.

At a Saturday meeting, the PPP, joined by the small parties, sought to ignore a decision made by the electoral body last week on the matter, and again tried to press GECOM to backpedal on it.

The Elections Commission met with the political parties that contested the March 2 General and Regional Elections at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) on Saturday to discuss the Operational Plan and other protocols that would be employed, once the recount commences. It was during that meeting that the opposition parties called on the Chairman of GECOM, Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh and the Elections Commissioners to reconsider their decisions on live-streaming, and the sequence of the recount.

In arriving at its initial decision on April 24, the Elections Commission had explained that live-streaming of the National Recount, particularly the tabulation of the votes within the ballot boxes, would be a violation of Section 90 of the Representation of the People Act.
That section states: “Every person attending at the counting of votes shall maintain, and shall not communicate any information obtained at the recount as to the list of Candidates for which any vote has been given.”

But PPP/C Executive Member and Attorney-at-Law Anil Nandlall on Saturday argued that Section 90 of the Representation of the People Act is not applicable to the pending recount, as he made a case for the process to be live- streamed, much to the objection of the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC), whose representatives said that GECOM’s decision must be respected.

“Section 90 speaks to the protection of the identity of the voter at the ballot station; the results of this election have already been declared. Boxes are going to be identified by numbers, so how will you know what is the box number your vote is in… And, no vote; no ballot has any name,” Nandlall told reporters shortly after exiting the meeting at the Conference Centre.

GREATER TRANSPARENCY
According to him, streaming of the recount will make for greater transparency of the process. Last week, the PPP/C wrote the Elections Commission on the matter.
A New and United Guyana (ANUG) Executive Member, Timothy Jonas, in his engagement with the press, echoed similar sentiments. “The Representation of the People Act has a system; you count at the place of poll. Everybody signs off.

You do the Statement of Poll; you place it on the wall, and the second stage is for the Regional Officer to assess those Statements of Poll for the region, and tell you what the number is. We [have] gone past all of that, so we are now outside of the four corners of the Act,” Jonas argued.

He submitted that live-streaming of the recount would boost the transparency of the process. “Live-streaming is important for transparency; at the end of the day, whether you are happy with the results, or you are not happy with the results, I think we will all sit more comfortably if we saw the recount and know that it happened fairly,” Jonas said.
The New Movement (TNM) Leader, Dr. Asha Kissoon, and the Citizenship Initiative Executive Member Nyall Jodhan also expressed similar concerns.

However, APNU+AFC Executive Member, Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson told reporters that the decisions of the Elections Commission must be respected, as it has committed to providing periodic broadcasts of the recount.

Patterson warned that any backpedalling on decisions made can result in a delay in the process. “Let us proceed with the count; don’t let any variables delay the process,” he said. The APNU+AFC, in addition to supporting the periodic broadcast of the
process, has recommended that there be no use of cellphones at workstations.

The opposition parties also made a case for the 10 Electoral Districts to be counted numerically, starting with Region One, but the APNU+AFC submitted that the votes should be counted, based on the decision taken by the Elections Commission.

SIMULTANEOUS TABULATION
According to the Guidance Note on the National Recount for the General and Regional Elections provided to the parties, the votes cast in Districts 1, 2, 3 and 4 will be tabulated simultaneously.

“The count for District 4 shall continue at the three workstations assigned to it. The counts for Districts 5 through 10 shall be conducted, based on the completion of, and at the workstations assigned to Districts 1, 2, 3,” a section of the guidance note stated. Patterson, on behalf of the APNU+AFC, said that that sequence should be respected by all parties, as he iterated the importance of moving the process forward.

But the PPP/C and ANUG, along with a number of other smaller political parties disagreed, arguing that it could lead to chaos. “We were counting one region; Region 4 alone, and look at the controversy and problems which erupted,” Nandlall said, while noting that the simultaneous counting of more than one region at a time could pose many challenges and complexities. According to him, it would be easier to count one region at a time.

“It is simpler. Simplicity breeds transparency; it breeds accountability,” Nandlall told reporters.
Like Nandlall, Jonas told reporters that the simultaneous counting of ballots from more than one region would lead to confusion.

“Confusion, of course, is the enemy of transparency. If you want this thing done so that everybody could understand how it is going to happen, you want it done as simply as possible, with a record and a chain of custody, so you can see how documents are moving back and forth. That wouldn’t happen if you are counting four regions at a time,” the ANUG Executive reasoned.

DISSENTING VIEWS
But this proposal did not receive the support of the APNU+AFC, whose representatives, Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson; Minister of Social Protection Amna Ally; and Chief Executive Officer of the National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF) Secretariat, Joseph Harmon, supported the parallel counting of regions in accordance with the decision of the Elections Commission.

The parties also made a case for GECOM to make public all Statements of Poll (SOPs) from the 10 Electoral District, so as to allow the public, the political parties, and other stakeholders to compare the original SOPs with the Statements of Recount (SORs), once the recount is completed.

Last week, a similar proposal in the form of a Motion was made by PPP/C- nominated Commissioner Sase Gunraj to the Elections Commission, but it was voted down by the Commission. Also, the opposition parties asked GECOM that the Guyana Police Force be assisted by another security firm to enhance the security at the ACCC, where the recount will take place.

The Chair of GECOM, after taking note of the concerns raised by the political parties, committed to giving them some thought.

INTENSE DISCUSSION
Noting that it was “quite an intense discussion,” GECOM’s Public Relations Officer Yolanda Ward told reporters that the Elections Commission will assess the recommendations, and make a determination.

The CARICOM high-level team also met with the GECOM officials at the Conference Centre subsequent to the meeting with the political parties. The three-member delegation, comprising Senior Lecturer at the University of the West Indies, Cynthia Barrow-Giles; Commissioner of the Antigua and Barbuda Electoral Commission, John Jarvis; and Supervisor of St Vincent Electoral Commission, Sylvester King, were also taken on a tour of the Conference Centre, where the 10 workstations have been set up.

The Elections Commission will meet to today to consider the recommendations of the political parties, and decide on a commencement date. It is likely that the commencement order will be gazzetted on Monday.