RECENTLY, an association of business persons assented to the institution of automatic vote counting in Guyana. They want to catapult us into the 21st Century of the electronic way of doing things. That is, the voting as well as the counting of ballots, where everything is electronically done at lightning speed. 

You see, the real reason for their making that suggestion is that they are tired of the violence that is associated with general elections in Guyana. They are tired of the damage and destruction they have to endure at the hands of PNC thugs; this is the reason for their wanting to go the route of an automated vote count; they would want a speedy vote count, and equally speedy results after elections.
But, is this really going to happen? I am talking about the people of Guyana living to see the day when we will have violence-free elections. Well, I urge you, dear readers, to follow my discussion to see where we are going to go if government decide to go automation.
I begin our discussion by telling you what took place in Florida during the election to office of President George W. Bush Jr. We are all familiar with that situation where, for 14 years, Florida went the way of electronic voting, whereby voters would vote via a machine, and the said machine counts the ballots.
In this whole scenario of electronic voting, you have to take into account that there would be votes that the machine would reject; what we commonly call ‘spoilt’ votes.
Now, the machine did just that to the votes that it considered spoilt; those votes were not held as votes, but were simply spat out into the waste basket. The results of that election in Florida saw the Republican Bush gaining a victory, albeit by a slim majority, and here is where the problem began.
The Democrats did not accept defeat, but immediately responded by finding fault with the machines that served them for 14 long years.
Mark you! This has been the system of voting there for 14 years, up until the time when Bush was elected. But for the fact that a Democrat did not win, they, in turn, found fault with the voting machines.
Seeing Bush’s  win was a close call! There was an automatic order for a recount of the ballots. Again, Bush came out victorious with a 54-vote lead.
The Democrats were still not content with that recount, so they did the unthinkable: They went into the trash can and began a count of rejected ballots. This was never done before; where rejected ballots were salvaged for a recount. Hence, it constituted an illegal act.
At this stage, the Supreme Court stepped in with a ruling, putting an end to their illegal recount. It must be noted here that there was no burning and looting, nor any form of violence by the losing Democrats; just an acceptance of the harsh reality that they have lost, and that life must go on.
Fast forward to the Guyana scene: do you think the PNC/APNU would ever accept a situation that I’ve highlighted above? Yes? Then, you certainly need to have a psychiatric check of your brain.
In the first place, they would tell their supporters that the machines were programmed to reject PNC/APNU votes. And in the scenario mentioned above, would want to alter the rules after the results are in.
You know fully well what would come next! With a well-armed Opposition, this will be the time of the channa bombs; the grenades and all forms of deadly incendiary devices would be unleashed on the Guyanese public.
The stark reality is that this form of voting is doomed from the very start, because you have an unyielding Opposition of bad losers. The reality of this whole affair is that you are dealing with a political party that has never accepted defeat gracefully. They will not be defeated; that’s the way the saying goes.
So, whenever that “never defeat” chant is hyped up among its supporters, there is bound to be mayhem in the streets of Georgetown.
The fact is that there is no cure for bad losers; bad losers will forever make trouble. In this regard, I urge the government to stick to what we have.

NEIL  ADAMS