“We are pleased with the security arrangements so far”-Patterson

As the national recount of the votes cast at the March 2, 2020 regional and general elections commences at the Arthur Chung Convention Center, there is heavy security arrangements on the ground and Minister of Public Security David Patterson said he is pleased with the arrangements made so far.

“Well so far so good, I see the Guyana police are in charge,one of the things one political party wanted was private security so I am pleased to see that the police are in charge,” he said.

He said it was asked that no firearms be allowed on the premises and he noted that”we don’t want no gun-totting individuals in there trying to intimidate anyone,” he added adding that the APNU+AFC coalition will comply with the arrangements.He expressed hope that the other political parties will also comply with the arrangements.

As regards streaming of the recount process, Patterson said that GECOM has its reasons for audio-streaming the event.”You open the ballot boxes in front of everyone and when you do that you check to see that all the contents that are in the box are there, and if they are missing you have a challenge,” he said noting that a preliminary cross checking would then lead to the actual counting of ballots in said box.

Patterson said he is hopeful that all the rules set up by GECOM for the process will stand as opposed to what took place at the Ashmin’s Building where the commission had its base at the March elections.During that period numerous party agents were on hand and this led to some confusion during the tabulation process.

The recount of the votes is expected to last for 25 days commencing with Region One to Region Ten.