—- refers to convention centre with hundreds as ‘low-risk environment’
EVEN before the commencement of the national recount of votes cast in the 2020 General and Regional Elections on Wednesday, opposition-nominated Commissioner Robeson Benn took issue with the social-distancing measures in place at the recount centre.
The recount is taking place at the at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre (ACCC) and special guidelines have been put in place by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to ensure that persons participating are protected from the deadly coronavirus disease, 2019 (COVID-19).
International best practices for COVID-19 require persons to stay at least six feet (2 metres) apart; wear masks and practise regular sanitisation.
Back in April, the secretariat conducted a training session with its staff on procedures that would be employed in keeping with recommendations of the National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF) to prevent the spread of the virus, even as the importance of the recount is recognised.
However, in a letter to the media on the morning of the first day, Benn accused GECOM of “perverse use” of the guidelines.
“Based on observations of the layouts and footprints of counting stations at the convention centre, the Guyana Elections Commission appears to be making maximum perverse use of the COVID-19 situation to keep stakeholders and observers remote from satisfactory direct observation and verification of the recount process for ballot boxes,” he said.
Benn claimed that the seating arrangement between stakeholders and observers is some 15 feet apart and that if someone were to sit at the last row of seats in the ACCC dome, they would be 40 feet away from the recount process.
The seating in the dome-like structure is fixed to the facility and cannot be moved. Added to this, the elections commission – inclusive of Benn— the CARICOM team and representatives of the NCTF had visited the centre twice and weeks in advance to determine that the facility met their satisfaction. It was this collective agreement of all involved that led to the use of the ACCC as the venue.
Nonetheless, Benn stated: “GECOM utilising the misguided, or worse malicious, guidance from the Ministry of Public Health, is bent on enforcing a six-foot social distance requirement in a seating arrangement for stakeholders and observers.”
He referred to the environment of hundreds of individuals as “a low-risk environment.”
Benn also found fault with the facilities — previously agreed upon — or the live-streaming of the process, which would result in the capturing and broadcasting of the process.
“The presence of the screen to project the packages, ballots and other materials does not really help because the fixed camera capture is relatively small to ascertain the true condition of packages, ballots and the ultimate storage or fate of all items received and possessed[sic],” he said.
The commissioner added that one would have to “continuously alter views” to correct the matter and to avoid possible claims of “switching or insertions.” This is even as all persons entering the ACCC had their handbags checked by Guyana Police Force (GPF) officials at the gate and, at any given time, there are GECOM staff, representatives of political parties and international and local observers present at all work stations.
Although Benn made these complaints, summing up the day when he came out of the centre around 18:00hrs, PPP/C executive member, Anil Nandall stated that he hadn’t witnessed any such issues with social distancing.
He said: “I haven’t heard any complaint being made or seen any evidence that there is a problem with social distancing. I didn’t detect that at all; that was not one of the issues which arose.”
Source: https://issuu.com/guyanachroniclee-paper/docs/guyana_chronicle_epaper_05_07_2020