…CARICOM expresses concerns over PPP 20 workstations proposal, due to COVID-19
– GECOM Chair to issue decision, today, on duration of exercise

By Svetlana Marshall
THE Caribbean Community (CARICOM), in its communication with the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh, reportedly expressed concerns over the large number of persons that would be required for the execution of the National Recount, should the Commission use 20 workstations as proposed by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) nominated Commissioners. The concern was raised in light of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the need to maintain physical distancing to flatten the curve.

Justice Singh and the CARICOM Secretary-General, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, have been in communication since April 14 on GECOM’s renewed position to execute a National Recount of all the ballots cast during the March 2 General and Regional Elections. It was during their discourse on Thursday that CARICOM expressed concerns over the proposed 20 workstations. The Chair, who, at the time, was meeting with the Commissioners at GECOM’s headquarters, communicated CARICOM’s concerns to them.

At the conclusion of that meeting, Government-nominated Commissioner, Vincent Alexander, told reporters that, like CARICOM, he has repeatedly expressed concerns over the number of persons that would be present at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) were the Commission to use 20 workstations as tabled by the PPP/C nominated Commissioners – Sase Gunraj, Bibi Shadick and Robeson Benn.

“This is a concern that I had raised on a number of occasions in making my own presentation because the calculations show if we are to have 20 workstations, we would have somewhere in the vicinity of 300 persons assembling, and it is my humble opinion that in the context of COVID, that you cannot have 300 people assembled in one place at this time,” Commissioner Alexander said.

Commissioner Gunraj, who had tabled the proposal with the backing of his colleagues, had said that with the use of 20 workstations, the recount would be completed within a period of 10 days at a rate of one hour per ballot box. Though, in his interaction with the press, he did not indicate that CARICOM had expressed concerns over his proposal, Gunraj maintained that his plan was a viable one.

“I believe that I have sufficiently justified my proposal, both in the document and supplemented that orally, and it has been done by all of the members by my side,” the Opposition-nominated Commissioner posited.

However, Alexander is maintaining that the PPP/C nominated Commissioners’ proposal is not feasible in wake of COVID-19. He said following the Commission’s visit to the Conference Centre on Wednesday (April 15), Gunraj proposed that the 20 workstations be placed in the ACCC as well as on the lawns of the centre, while Commissioner Benn suggested that all of 20 the workstations be placed on the lawns of the ACCC.

“The contention, however, continues to be that in any of those circumstances of 20, the large number of persons in the compound, to me, would defeat the whole question of how we are trying to deal with COVID-19. That apart, I maintain the position that 20 stations in the compound lends to the mob situation that we were disposed to at Ashmins (building) and we cannot repeat that, we have to learn from our experience. Therefore, what we have to use is the building, where we can have greater control in terms of who attends what…” Alexander reasoned.

In his counter proposal to the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield’s revised five (5) workstations operational plan, Alexander suggested that there be eight (8) workstations to execute the National Recount at a rate of two (2) hours per ballot box. Alexander told reporters that in his proposal, he also provided the Commission with optional durations. “If the exercise, I was envisaging, would take two (2) hours per box, that would require 64 days. If it was to take hour and half per box that would be 48 days. If it was to take one hour per box, that would be 32 days,” Alexander posited while rubbishing suggestions by Commissioner Benn that it would take approximately 30 minutes to count one ballot box.

There is a total of 2, 339 ballot boxes, and, according to the CEO’s estimation, it will take each team approximately two hours to count each of the boxes. It was explained that each ballot would need to be projected on a screen, but before arriving at that stage, the contents of the ballot boxes would have to be examined to ascertain the number of electors on the list, the number of electors who voted, counting votes cast for both General and Regional Elections and validation of spoilt, questioned and rejected ballots.

According to Alexander, CARICOM, in its dialogue with the GECOM Chair, asked whether there was scope for compromise between the eight workstations he proposed and the 20 proposed by Gunraj. The number of workstations would influence the duration of the process, and the Chair of GECOM, during Thursday’s meeting, indicated that she would decide on the number of workstations, the duration of the recount and other procedural matters on Friday, following consultations with the National COVID-19 Task Force.
In addition, to address the issue of the number of workstations to be used and the duration of the process, Justice Singh would also determine whether the recount would be streamed, Commissioner Gunraj told reporters.

However, Commissioner Alexander made it clear that CARICOM did not enquire about live streaming. “CARICOM did not propose a live streaming of the tabulation process; that’s a misrepresentation and an attempt to bring CARICOM in line with what other persons have said. What CARICOM said, is that, rather than having all of their personnel come here, that the personnel could be overseas and we could stream to them; that is not a live streaming,” Commissioner Alexander clarified. The PPP/C Commissioners, in their proposal, had advocated for the tabulation exercise to be live streamed for public observation.

Alexander was keen on noting that while CARICOM queried the possibility of streaming, it did not indicate whether its high-level team would return to Guyana or whether part of the team would return and another part remain in their jurisdictions. CARICOM has not made its decision known.

The independent high-level CARICOM team comprises former Attorney-General and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Dominica, Ms. Francine Baron; former Minister of Finance of Grenada, Mr. Anthony Boatswain; Senior Lecturer in the Department of Government of UWI Ms. Cynthia Barrow-Giles; Chief Electoral Officer of Barbados, Ms. Angela Taylor; and Chief Elections Officer of Trinidad and Tobago, Ms. Fern Narcis-Scope.