…some coalition agents describe first day of recount
By Gabriella Chapman
THE national recount of the March 2, 2020 elections commenced on Wednesday at the Arthur Chung Conference Center (ACCC), and despite the few glitches that were had at the start of the day, agents of the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition said they are pleased with the process thus far.
Speaking with the media on the lawns of ACCC, Minister of Youth Affairs, Simona Broomes, said they had a late start due to the delay in accessing the containers, but after it started it was a smooth run. “I moved around the building but most of the time I’ve been in one area, dealing with one district. I think in my district for this morning I would have noticed anomalies and I don’t think it is too big to be solved, I’ve registered the concerns, following the protocol. And at the end of it, it will go through the channels that it has to go through… I wouldn’t like to say what it is, but other than that, for my station, which is Region Two, I think things are moving pretty smooth,” Broomes said.
She said that counting votes is a timely process “and of course, in the best interest of all, we’re looking for credible results so I am working and I think all of us should work with GECOM staff so that they go through what they have to go through. I think they’re doing their best, we had no hassle in there. They’re projecting the ballot paper for all to see, they have a screen and everything. And at the end of the first box, they did the report and all of us signed as satisfied with what is happening.”
Broomes said at this point it is hard to ascertain how long the recount process will actually take, but she noted that after the first day, they might get a better feel.
TENSION
Meanwhile, Coretha McDonald said at her station, which held the ballot boxes for Region Three, there was much tension as was evident in the body language of the other party representatives, but that did not hinder the flow of the process.
“Region three, started off very tense but as we progressed, the tension eventually simmered down… There was no confrontation, but body language spoke a lot. I guess persons are all there representing their parties and they’re coming there to compete, and everybody wants his/her party to lead and because of all the tension we would have had before and all the ‘flare and the flur’ and the things you saw on Facebook and at press conferences, I think that is what kind of hyped up some party supporters, so when they came here, they just looked at you with daring and pointed eyes rather than good morning and how are you and that kind of thing you usually expect,” McDonald said.
She noted that her station had two slight issues, but they were resolved speedily.
“We had two little minor issues that were quickly resolved. One was rather than the ‘x’ marked in the box, it was marked on the name of the party, we queried and that query was verified and the vote was counted as being valid. We had another one where instead of an ‘x’, it just had a stroke there. That was also queried and the vote was deemed valid. Other than that, the process went smoothly, persons accepted the counts as they are.
As a matter of fact, we had counting being done three times just to verify that we all have the same numbers that are there. So for me, so far so good and I’m looking forward to what will happen for the rest of the week. We looked at the outlying areas and we have not yet found major issues in those areas. But I’m hoping that coming down to the middle area, we would have smooth transition, smooth process and whatever issue arises, we will be able to have them being resolved,” McDonald outlined.
Speaking with the media too, was Ryan Belgrave who echoed similar sentiments. He said that the process was as expected, and everyone present at his station, which was District Four, signed off in agreement that the numbers were accurate.
“As was promised, we had an audit of the ballot boxes. We looked at the folders and envelopes that were placed in each box. We also looked at the votes that were cast by the respective parties, the rejected ballots, we were able to examine and see the ballots on the screen to be certain that the votes that were announced were what was there, and those sorts of things. For the room that I was in, I had no serious concerns. We had the party representatives, OAS and a local observer, and everyone signed off,” Belgrave said.
The process continues today, as the country awaits the progress of the national recount and the eventual declaration of the winning party and President of the country.
Source: https://issuu.com/guyanachroniclee-paper/docs/guyana_chronicle_epaper_05_07_2020