Two hundred and forty-three (243) ballot hons from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) are left to be processed by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Secretariat as the National Recount of the votes cast at the March 2020 General and Regional Elections come to a close.
Today, al I. 12 workstations at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) will be assigned to the country’s largest electoral district. Region Four has a total of 879 Ballot Boxes, and already, more than 72 percent of the boxes have been processed, in addition to all of the boxes from U1e other nine (9) Electoral Districts – Region One (Barima-Waini), Region Two ( Pomeroon-Supenaam), Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni), Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice). In total, votes within 2096 ballot boxes have been recounted.
On Thursday, Day 30 of the National Recount, the last two boxes from Regions Six and IO were counted, in addition to 81 ballot boxes from Region Four. In total, 2,063 Statements of Recount (SORs) have been tabulated for the General Elections and 2,068 SORs for the Regional Elections.
When asked on Thursday, whether the Elections Secretariat is well on its way to complete the recount of votes ahead of ex- tended (June 13), deadline, Commissioner Alexander told reporters, he doubts it. “The gazette deadline in the amendments is the 13th of June; we are now on I y counting District Four, all the other Districts for all intents and purposes have been concluded, subject to the presentation of the re- port with the observation reporters for the purpose of determining the credibility of those counts,” Alexander told reporters.
The amended order out- lines the procedure to be employed, once a report of the recount is submitted to the Elections Commission by the Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield. The amended order states: “The Commission shall, after deliberating on the report at Paragraph 12, determine whether it should request the Chief Election Officer to use the data compiled in accordance with Paragraph 12 as the basis for the submission of a report under Section 96 of the Representation of the People Act, Cap I :03, pro- vided that the Commission shall, no later than three (3) days after receiving the report, make the declaration of the results of the final credible count of the elections held on the 2nd day of March 2020.”
According to Paragraph 12 of the Order, the matrices for the recount of the I 0 Electoral Districts must be tabulated by the Chief Elections Officer, and a report submitted to the Elections Commission, together with a summary of the Observation Reports for each District. In a previous interview, Alexander had explained that, in accordance with the amended order, the Chief Elections Officer is required to submit his Report on the National Recount no later than June 13.
He noted that once the report is deliberated upon by the Elections Commission, it will determine whether the Chief Election Officer should use the data to compile a final report for the declaration of the results.
Commissioner Alexander explained that during the deliberation on the report submitted on the recount, the Elections Commission will confirm or negate whether persons voted in the place of the dead or individuals who were out of the jurisdiction on E-Day, in addition to a number of other anomalies that have surfaced since the commencement of the recount.
But Elections Commissioner Sase Gunraj, in a separate interview, had offered a slightly different explanation, which suggested that the results of the elections ought to be declared three days after the June 13 deadline. “Finally, the Order specifies the time within which a declaration has to be made by the Guyana Elections Commission of the final results of the elections Commission, together with a held on the 2nd of March, 2020, and that date is no later than three days from the 13th day of June, 2020,” Gunraj had said.
While Alexander, in his discourse, indicated that the Commission will deliberate on, among other things, the Observation Reports ahead of any declaration, Gunraj has long maintained that GECOM has no such authority.
·’GECOM has taken no decision; the Commission has taken absolutely no decision in so far as it relates to treating with any of the issues that have arisen, or may arise during this recount process,” Gunraj contended. To date, more than 1,500 ballot boxes have been processed from a total of2,339.”
The National Recount, which commenced on May 6, 2020, is being executed under Article 162 of the Constitution, and Section 22 of the Elections Law (Amendment) Act under the supervision of the Elections Commission, based on an agreement reached between president David Granger and Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo following the intervention of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
Source: https://issuu.com/guyanachroniclee-paper/docs/guyana_chronicle_epaper_06_05_2020