…GECOM agrees to deliberate on observation reports despite PPP/C’s objections
…commission to continue review of CEO’s report today

By Svetlana Marshall
AN attempt to shelve the Chief Elections Officer’s (CEO’s) Observation Reports, which emanated out of the National Recount, was met with objection at the level of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on the basis that those reports are critical in the Commission’s quest to determine the credibility of the General and Regional Elections held last March.

The Elections Commission, chaired by Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh, is expected to meet again today (June 16) to continue deliberation on the CEO’s Report on the National Recount, which includes a tabulation of the votes recounted and a Summary Observation Report for each of the 10 Electoral Districts. The Elections Commission initiated discussions on the CEO’s Report on Monday (June 15), and from the onset a discussion emerged on whether the Observation Reports should be considered.

“There were those who attempted to contend that we need to get to, what they call ‘the chase,’ and simply give effect to the tabulation. A discussion therefore ensued, which eventually led into a commencement of a discussion on the Observation Reports,” Elections Commissioner Vincent Alexander said. Guyana Chronicle was told that the Chair was in agreement for the reports to be considered.

At the time, he had just exited the meeting of the Elections Commission at GECOM’s Headquarters at High and Cowan Streets. Based on the votes tabulated at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) – the site of the National Recount – the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) secured 233,336 votes while the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU+AFC) raked in 217,920 votes. But while the recount shows the PPP/C in the lead by 15,416 votes, the Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, in his Observation Reports, said that the Elections were not credible because more than 200,000 votes had been compromised due to widespread irregularities and cases of voter impersonation.

Much to the objection of the PPP/C and smaller political parties, the APNU+AFC had pointed to thousands of cases in which persons are alleged to have voted in the place of the dead and Guyanese who were listed on the Official List of Electors but were out of the jurisdiction on Elections Day. The Opposition had argued that many of the claims were unsubstantiated – an issue that Commissioner Alexander sought clarification on.

Secretariat gets evidence on migration, deaths
“I sought clarification on whether the commission had in fact garnered evidence in relation to the deaths and the migration, and so, the Secretariat has now provided us with documentation to show that they, in fact, had gotten verification in relations to deaths and migration,” the Elections Commissioner disclosed.

The CEO, in his Report, said that the claims of voter impersonation were confirmed when Reports from the Chief Immigration Officer and General Registrar’s Office were consulted. There were 4,864 cases of voter impersonation, according to the CEO.

Alexander explained that while GECOM receives periodic reports from the General Registrar’s Office on deaths recorded, the Secretariat had instituted a cut-off time so as to prepare the List of Electors. “Subsequent to that cut-off date, there would have been reports coming in that would not have been part of the deletions from the National Register of Registrants, so those persons would have appeared on the National Register and on the Voters’ List. And so it seems as if, in the main, where instances of persons died voted, there were persons who would have died, and would have had their deaths registered subsequent to GECOM’s cut-off date for the preparation of its list,” the Elections Commissioner further explained.

Aside from the issue of voter impersonation, the CEO, in his report, had pointed to a string of anomalies including missing Certificates of Employment, Oaths of Identity, Counterfoils, Unused Ballots and Official Lists of Electors (OLEs) among other statutory documents. Added to that, Alexander said a live issue remains in relation to the 81 ballots from Sophia that were rejected because of the absence of the official six-digit stamp. It was found that the Assistant Presiding Officer had only stamped one half of the ballots and not the other half. Reference was also made to the 47 ballot boxes that were void of statutory documents required by Law.

“My own disposition on this matter is that I start off on a position of principle, that every vote should be counted, no one should be disenfranchised, and therefore in that regard, with respect to the 47 boxes, I had previously said to you that we should find a mechanism to allow for those people not to be disenfranchised,” the Elections Commissioner opined.
Also before the Elections Commission is the CARICOM Observation Team’s Report. In contrast to the CEO’s Report, the CARICOM team said while there were defects and malpractices, they were not sufficient to thwart the will of the people.

Missing documents warrant probe
Notably, however, the CARICOM Observers said that the missing statutory documents from the 47 ballot boxes warrant an investigation by the Elections Commission. They said too that there was evidence to suggest that Presiding Officers at the March poll failed to comply with GECOM’s manual resulting in missing statutory documents such as Oaths of Identity, Certificates of Employment, Official Lists of Elections, and Counterfoils among others.
“A far more egregious issue was the absence of counterfoils which are critical to verify the number of ballots cast in as much as the OLE’s often differed in the number of serial numbers marked as having voted,” it said.

The Elections Commission is likely to pronounce on the 2020 General and Regional Elections this week, Commissioner Alexander told reporters while not ruling out the possibility of the elections being annulled.

Elections Commissioner Sase Gunraj, who from the onset of the National Recount indicated that it is not for GECOM to deliberate and rule on the Observations cited, refrained from offering a comment on the recount but to say that the meeting will continue today. According to the gazetted Order, the Elections Commission, upon deliberating on the CEO’s Report, will determine whether or not to instruct him to use the data to compile a report for the declaration of the results in accordance with the Representation of the People’s Act.