…as GECOM sees improvements in recount process

AS of Friday, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) managed to count votes contained in 108 ballots boxes drawn from Region One (Barima-Waini), Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) and Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) as it sees improvements in the National Recount Process.
On the first day of the National Recount of the votes cast at the March 2 General and Regional Elections, only 25 ballot boxes were counted due to a number of teething problems, but as the issues are addressed, the number of boxes are increasing. On the second day of the recount, 40 ballot boxes were processed while on Friday – Day 3 – 43 ballot boxes were counted.

“So far for Day 3 of the recount exercise we would have counted 43 boxes; we had 10 for Region One, another 10 for Region Two, 11 for Region Three and 12 for Region 4. So in total we have just about 108 boxes completed overall,” GECOM’s Public Relations Officer (PRO) Yolanda Ward disclosed at the close of operations at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre where the recount is taking place.

There are a total of 2,339 ballot boxes, and with 108 completed, it therefore means that 2,232 ballot boxes remain to be counted.
On Thursday, the Elections Commission at a meeting at the Conference Centre took a decision to tabulate the Statements of Recount (SORs) as they are submitted to the Tabulation Centre. In making that decision, the Commission had said that the tabulation will be conducted on a daily basis from 17:00hrs to 18:30hrs, and in accordance with the Order, the SORs will be tabulated upon the completion of an entire Electoral District. However, on Thursday it indicated that the tabulations hours are likely to be extended. A decision is expected today.

When asked what sparked the Commission’s decision to tabulate the SORs daily, Ward reminded that the Chair of GECOM, Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh was approached by a political party, asking

“From the Order the plan was never to have an ongoing tabulation exercise daily, the order did say that tabulation would be done at the end of every region but of course based on some objections and suggestions by stakeholders, when the Commission met they decided that it would be useful to have the process commence earlier, so as to do a daily tabulation,” Ward explained.

She noted that though the tabulation process commenced a bit late, significant progress was made in tabulating the votes stated on the SORs. “But at the end of day’s tabulation exercise for the General Elections, they were able to process 74 [Statements of Recount] out of that 108 boxes that are completed, and 63 boxes for the Regional Elections,” the GECOM PRO said while noting that the tabulation process is on stream. Each SOR is accompanied by an Observation Report.

GECOM has set aside a period of 25 days to conduct the recount, however, this period according to the Gazetted Order is subject to review. According to Ward, the Commission will meet next week and deliberate on the duration. This was confirmed by Elections Commissioner Desmond Trotman.

“Certainly I believe before the week is out or by the time the end of the week comes around some reviews will take place,” Trotman told reporters. The Elections Commissioner noted that the process of recounting the ballot is improving.
“I thought that the process today went fairly well. There have been an increase in the number of boxes that are being processed….Even though there have been some glitches, I do believe that everything have gone fairly well,” he posited.

Representatives of the various political parties indicated that though the process remains relatively slow but said many of the teething problems experienced on the first two days have been addressed allowing for a smooth process. The National Recount is being observed by the parties that contested the General and Regional Elections in addition to local and international observers including the Organisation for American States (OAS), the Canadian High Commission, the CARICOM Scrutinizing Team, the Private Sector Commission and CUFFY 250 among others. Notably, there are strict security and COVID-19 measures in place.