ONE day after it was discovered that some 84 ballots were rejected at a Sophia Nursery School polling station, Elections Commissioner Vincent Alexander said the ballots should be counted as valid, in his opinion.

When Ballot Box 4549 was opened, it was revealed that, on March 2, 2020, 184 electors from a list of 256 turned up to vote at Sophia Nursery School at a single Polling Station. But of the 184 ballots cast, only 101 were deemed valid for the General Elections, the other 83 were rejected.

According to the Observation Report, which was generated, of the rejected ballots, 82 were rejected “for want of official mark,” meaning it lacked the official six digit stamp. The other rejected ballot was marked for more than one Party List of Candidates.

For the Regional Elections, there were 182 valid votes cast, and three ballots within Ballot Box 4549, which were deemed rejected – two because of the absence of the official six digit stamp and another because it was marked in favour of more than one List of Candidates.

Weighing in on the issue on Thursday, Alexander, while speaking to reporters outside of the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), said that it is clear they are legitimate ballot papers, explaining that the unstamped or incorrectly stamped ballot correspond with a similar number stamped.

He said from all indication, it was an error on the part of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Secretariat staff. “It is apparent that in that instance, the officer responsible folded the ballot paper horizontally, rather than vertically and did place two stamps, which eventually ended up on one half of the ballot and not on the other half,” the Elections Commissioner explained.

According to the Electoral Laws, unstamped ballots ought to be rejected. However, Alexander believes that if a judgment is made not merely on what the Law says but what it intended, then the ballots would be deemed valid.

While noting that the Elections Commission has not deliberated on that specific issue as yet, Alexander expressed the hope that when the issue arises at the level of the Commission, there is a fair judgment.

“I can hardly see us not admitting those ballots as valid ballots. The Commission, itself, has not yet adjudicated on the matter but this clearly falls within one of the three scenarios that I had earlier articulated and I am looking forward to a sensible, rational and just decision to have those ballots counted,” Alexander told reporters.

According to the Observation Report for the Ballot Box, which was seen by the Guyana Chronicle, 69 of the rejected ballots were marked in favour of the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) while 12 were marked in favour of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C).

“It was noted by the APNU+AFC agent that the rejected ballots for want of official mark, the extra official mark was seen on the Regional Part of the Ballot,” a section of the Observation Report read. The alarming number of rejected ballots for want of an official mark was among issues raised with the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) by the APNU+AFC.

During her most recent press conference on Monday, GECOM Public Relations Officer, Yolanda Ward, said that there were 1,536 rejected ballots for the General Elections based on the five Electoral Districts for which Certificates of District Tabulation have been generated. The rejected ballots for the Regional Elections totaled 1,927. These numbers are likely to increase as more districts are certified.

Ward explained that a ballot is deemed rejected “for want of official mark, which is the stamp, unmarked or void of uncertainty, marked for more than one party List of Candidates, or marked so that the Elector can be identified.”

“Anything within those categories is what constitutes a rejected ballot,” she added.
While Ward was able to provide a breakdown of the ballots rejected thus far based on the five regions certified, she was unable to indicate how many of those ballots were unstamped. There have been cases in which half of the ballot was stamped and the other half unstamped. According to her, the Commission is still deliberating on how it will treat with the ballots that were partially stamped.

“At this point I can’t say where they are at with their discussion,” Ward said while noting that there is a concern that some of the unstamped ballots may be that of members of the Disciplined Services. The Disciplined Services – members of the Guyana Police Force, Guyana Defence Force and Guyana Prison Service – voted 10 days ahead of E-Day.