…urges resumption of verification of SOPs
WITH the Counting Centre overrun by irate party leaders in the presence of media, observers and diplomats and apparently in the absence of any Elections Commissioners, except the closely-guarded and isolated Chairperson, Guyana’s electoral process slid progressively into chaos on Thursday, the Guyana Human Rights Association has said.
In a statement, the body said the contentious counting system employed by GECOM – the focus of much tension and delay in previous elections – once again ignited an electoral atmosphere already charged by the high-stakes reward of oil revenues. “The verification procedure of votes cast for each party is undertaken on the basis of information contained in the Statement of Poll (SOP) for each station. Verification is undertaken by Region.
On Thursday, this process had been completed for all Regions in this manner with Region 4 being the final one. After starting the Region 4 process in the recommended manner, information from a GECOM spread-sheet rather than the SOP began to be introduced,” GHRA notes.
Opposition scrutineers challenged the spread-sheet figures for a number of stations as being at odds with the SOP figures, in all cases by allocating higher numbers to APNU+AFC than the SOP figures. An intervention by the Chief Elections Officer, Mr. Lowenfield, found this to be true in 6 out of 8 boxes that he scrutinised. The GHRA said several meetings were held and Lowenfield then ordered the spread-sheet be set aside and the SOP be re-instituted.
International observers also supported this decision.
However, this decision was resisted. Confusion over the status of Region 4 count intensified. Fearing that election results would be pre-empted regardless of Mr. Lowenfield’s decision, opposition party lawyers filed a legal injunction to prevent announcement by GECOM of Region 4 results. However, in circumstances that are far from clear APNU+AFC claims the Region 4 verification number was announced by GECOM.
In light of obligations to voters, and in the interests of legality and transparency, the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) calls upon GECOM to complete the count in Region 4 on the basis of the Statements of Poll (SOP) as mandated by the GECOM CEO. The results should then be announced according to established procedures and accepted by all political parties and all citizens, regardless of who may be winners or losers. Furthermore, there should be no swearing-in of anyone until the Region 4 count is completed. The GHRA takes this opportunity to congratulate the Guyanese population for the patience demonstrated yet again given this dysfunctional electoral system. The GHRA will issue additional comments when the electoral process is complete.
