AS the publisher of a controversial exit poll of the Disciplined Services’ vote, member of the political Opposition, James Bond yesterday questioned the rationale of recent comments made by United States Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Bryan Hunt regarding the issue. “I think that it is tremendously dangerous, in the Guyanese context, to claim that they know what the results were either on Disciplined Forces Day or on Elections Day,” Hunt said Wednesday evening on a televised programme, ‘News in Conversation’, aired on the National Communications Network (NCN).
According to him, the elections law does not allow for anyone in or near a Polling Station to ask a voter how they voted.

“That is how an exit poll is done. You have to either be very close to a Polling Station or inside a Polling Station,” Hunt said, adding that the way the system is set up, there is no statistically valid way to know.
The Chargé d’Affaires added, “If you are not allowed to be there, you cannot do a credible poll… So, to throw out a number, there is no way for anyone to know that until the results are there; it does not do any good to anyone for speculation to be thrown out there.”
Hunt pointed to the dangers in speculations, premised on concerns of validity, coupled with Guyana’s unique circumstances.

UNIMPORTANT
The A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) member, also an attorney-at-law, last Saturday posted on Facebook “An example of what occurred today (yesterday) at Whim Police Station…total number of voters 165….number of votes cast 147…..APNU+AFC 140…..PPP 7…”
Yesterday, in a telephone interview with the Guyana Chronicle, he deemed Hunt’s comments as unimportant.
“GECOM (the Guyana Elections Commission) has said there is nothing wrong with the exit polls. Has he read what GECOM said? Isn’t that stupid?” Bond questioned.
He added, “I don’t have to respond to him; let him deal with GECOM. GECOM has said there was nothing illegal about what was done.”
On the question of legality, Attorney General Anil Nandlall, in an invited comment, explained that there is not one law, but a combination of legal provisions which repose the authority with GECOM relative to the declaration of the election results.
QUESTION OF VALIDITY
Also, GECOM did indeed address the question of Bond’s exit poll and, like Hunt did, the Commission addressed the question of the validity of such polls.
GECOM, in a statement released on Monday, said, “The duty of declaring the final official results of the 2015 General and Regional Elections rests exclusively with the Guyana Elections Commission. Any other information provided by any source(s) other than GECOM must not be considered as legitimate or valid by the citizenry.
“GECOM wishes to advise the public that only official elections results announced by GECOM are to be accepted. Any other claims to results would be spurious and unofficial.
“GECOM is also calling on all individuals and/or groups purporting to conduct exit polls and announcing their ‘findings’, to desist from this potentially dangerous and reckless practice, since their utterings may serve to stir unrest and create further uneasiness in an environment which is already tense.
“Moreover, extant electoral laws and guidelines mandate only GECOM as the sole legal authority to announce official election results in Guyana. In addition, it must be recognised that while there may be no specific Laws making Exit Polling an offence, there are Laws relating to the molestation of voters entering and exiting Polling Stations.
“The secrecy of the Ballot must remain sacrosanct. In any case, the reliability of results emanating from an Exit Poll is dubious, unreliable and very possibly inaccurate.”

NOT AT WHIM
Additionally, Bond disclosed that he was not present at Whim to physically conduct the exit poll.
“I was never at Whim. Why would I be at Whim? I am saying we conducted an exit poll, myself and others. I am saddened that the dissemination of information triggered the response that it has,” Bond said.
He noted that he is disappointed in the way “cowards in public office” are treating the exit poll.

CONDEMNED
Brigadier Mark Phillips, in his capacity as Chairman of the Joint Services, was among the many who condemned Bond’s action in the strongest possible way.
He said, “This is distasteful at best and extremely irresponsible behaviour by a former member of Parliament, given that there is no way the results of any polling place of today’s Joint Services voting can be known.
“The Joint Services is therefore calling on the authorities at GECOM to explain to the public whether there exists any possibility for a process they assured the nation would be secret to have been made public.
“This development is extremely worrying since Mr. Bond, an Attorney and Candidate on the APNU+AFC list, is expected to exercise good judgment in all matters pertaining to the electorate and the electoral process, and not seek in any way to incite mayhem among the populace.”