Georgetown: Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Justice (rt’d) Claudette Singh invited all political parties to attend a meeting on Saturday at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre as the GECOM Secretariat gears up for a recount of all votes cast on March 2, 2020.
In an email sent to all the parties that contested the general and regional elections, the GECOM Chairman said the briefing will deal with the “recount process.”
All of the political parties attending a briefing with the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) supported a live stream of the national recount of votes, except the incumbent APNU+AFC.
At the meeting was Chair of A New and United Guyana (ANUG), Timothy Jonas along with People’s Progressive Party (PPP) reps; The New Movement (TNM), the People’s Republican Party (PRP), A New and United Guyana (ANUG) and A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) representatives.
The Citizenship Initiative (TCI) and the CARICOM High Level Team were also present.
GECOM has previously decided that it would not stream the recount live. The Chair premised her rejection on the premise that Section 90 of the Representation of the People Act, which speaks to maintaining the secrecy of the count, does not permit her to stream the recount live. But opposing arguments have been made.
GECOM had resolved to only give the public intermittent reports of the progress of the recount.
David Patterson, an executive of the AFC, spoke to reporters about the coalition’s reasons for opposing the live stream said “I know for persons, they are concerned, one, about security. It is no secret that persons have been called up and, well, you know what happens in Guyana. Um, We are not against any sort of, you know, I mean, they said they’re gonna live stream processes, parts of it, they’re gonna live stream, I think, opening and closing and sealing and that sort of thing.”
Patterson claimed that the calls for live streaming the recount were nothing more than something to “name and shame”.
Patterson accused the PPP of planning to challenge the recount in court when the recount order is gazetted. This accusation was sharply rebuffed by the PPP in a subsequent statement.
He continued: “Live streaming, credible count, going into the ballot box, looking into the list of all the named electors to see who and who has voted, you mean, it’s a list, they have to ascertain all of that. You mean, the media, you seem not to, everyone seem to be talking about umm live streaming.”
People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) representative, Anil Nandlall emphasised the importance of the event being live-streamed. He pointed out that GECOM is not a private enterprise but rather, one that operates in the public interest and, therefore, more transparency should not be an issue.
“Every single person in the room advanced the case for live streaming, explaining how it will enhance transparency, fairness and boost public confidence in the system. Not surprisingly, the only party that opposed live streaming was APNU/AFC,” Nandlall said.
“All we want is that the process must be conducted fairly, transparently; should be properly overseen by as many people as possible to avoid skullduggery and the process is done accurately so that in the end we get an accurate result.” Nandlall noted that concerns were also raised over the handling of security at the venue. According to him, the Guyana Police Force ought not to be solely entrusted with security at the venue, but rather, another agency should assist the police.
He pointed out that the Guyana Police Force has previously acted unprofessionally, such as when they sought to put out Gunraj, a GECOM Commissioner, from the Region Four Returning Office at the Ashmins building during the original count.
When it comes to Lowenfield being given the power, according to the work plan, to resolve disputes, Nandlall was less than happy. He lambasted the CEO for his absence and noted that his party lacks confidence in this provision.
“We questioned one part of the work plan, residing in the CEO the power to resolve disputes. We are not satisfied with that. The CEO and Myers refused to come to this meeting! This is the singularly most important meeting in the country for GECOM and the Chief and Deputy Chief Elections Officers did not see it fit to attend this meeting.”
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