Georgetown: As the national recounting process of the March 2, 2020, General and Regional Elections continues, 49 ballot boxes were completed thus far from Regions One, Two, Three and Four.
GECOM was able to complete 25 boxes on Wednesday, 40 on Thursday and 43 on Friday bringing the total to 108 of the 2,339 ballot counted as of May 08.
Public Relations Officer (PRO) of GECOM, Yolanda Ward noted that while there were no major issues arising there were several queries resolved; e.g. questions were raised concerning the validity of a ballot.
Ward also referred to the issue of a ballot with the signature of the elector at the back. It was noted that the ballot should have been rejected at the polling station because it was unacceptable since the elector could be identified.
“Matters like those are some of the issues that came up at the stations but we were able to quickly resolve them …there wasn’t anything that caused a long delay in the respective stations,” Ward stated.
As to the issue of missing poll books, Ward said that GECOM is now in receipt of all the poll books which are now being integrated into the recounting process.
These issues are also being recorded in the observation reports as part of the process of examining the transparency of the process and to establish the credibility of the elections, the PRO explained.
As to how the commission will deal with the reports, Ward could not say as there was no decision yet by the commission on that matter.
Meanwhile, opposition parties have accused APNU+AFC of slowing down the tabulation of the votes which are being recounted by insisting on additional materials to be transmitted through the live audio/video stream.
The parties – Liberty and Justice Party, The New Movement, A New And United Guyana, Change Guyana, the United Republican Party and The Citizenship Initiative – have written to Justice (rt’d) Claudette Singh, the Chair of GECOM, the country’s elections body, asking for a meeting to address their issues.
The legal order which provides for the recount stipulates that the Statements of Recount (SORs), which are produced after every ballot box is counted, should be displayed when the different statements are being added up during what is called the tabulation process.
Once a box is completed, whatever issues arise are recorded on an Observation Report, but the Order does not provide for that report to be displayed or read.
But the parties say APNU+AFC have insisted on the Observation Report being displayed and then read out and that significantly drags out the process.
APNU+AFC nominated Commissioner Vincent Alexander said GECOM must consider provisions for the blind and the deaf, and so the provision for reading out the Observation Report and the Recount caters for the blind and the Sign Language is being considered for the deaf.
Alexander told reporters Saturday night that Sign Language is done simultaneously, so it wouldn’t add any extra time while the votes tallied are being read out, and from his estimation reading the Statements doesn’t take much time.
He said those who have clamoured for the transparency of the process must understand that a transparent process needs to be equitable for all segments of the population.
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