…CEO to continue probe into missing documents
THE A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) has expressed disappointment over a decision of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to tabulate votes from 29 ballot boxes that had none of the statutorily required documents.
The documents were discovered missing on June 4 and 5 after the matter was brought to the attention of the Elections Commission by the APNU+AFC by way of letter. The APNU+AFC has since objected to the Statements of Recount (SORs) generated for those ballot boxes being included in the tabulation exercise.
Following a meeting of the Commission on Sunday, which was expected to give verdict on the 29 boxes, Commissioner Vincent Alexander said that a majority decision was made that the ballots should be tabulated. Meanwhile, the Commission will continue to investigate the matter.
Alexander said that the decision was made on the held position that the vote of no elector should be disenfranchised. However, his position is that the said situation is much more complex. He stated that the decision to tabulate the SORs contradicts other decisions taken by the Commission, whereby votes were disenfranchised not by the doing of an elector but that of GECOM’s Polling Day staff.
AGREE IN PRINCIPLE
“In principle, I do agree, and I think the Commission agrees that no voter should be disenfranchised. That decision was made in principle, but when one takes the position that no voter should be disenfranchised and applies it to the fact that in many instances and on to now, in the circumstance of 81 ballots in Sophia which were clearly… a part of a whole document — the second half of which has two stamps and one half not having a stamp simply because the ballots were folded horizontally when they were being stamped rather than vertically — and we can’t make a decision on that, and people are trying not to address the matter at all,” the Commissioner reasoned.
He added: “We seem not to be a Commission that is pursuing fairness and justice in relation to the votes of the voters.”
The missing documents from the 29 boxes include counterfoils (used and unused ballots), Poll Books, and marked Official Lists of Electors (OLE) among other statutory documents. The boxes came from the Ogle Community Centre, Lusignan, Montrose Primary School, LBI Primary School, Life Spring Ministries, and Chateau Margot Nursery and Primary Schools among other areas known to be People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) strongholds.
With the key documents missing, the GECOM Staff, Party agents and all other observers involved are unable to verify whether the votes were legitimately cast.
In a statement on Sunday, the APNU+AFC expressed its dissatisfaction that the 29 ballot boxes would be tabulated. It described the boxes as “clearly fraudulent”, and stated that GECOM needs to publicly state the rationale behind the decision.
“APNU+AFC wishes to make it clear that we do not accept a tabulated vote as a credible vote, since in the bundle of tabulated votes rests several votes which are fraudulent. Decisions on matters raised by APNU+AFC are awaited,” the letter expressed.
Alexander had suggested to the Commission that some mechanism should be sought, and later put forward to the media the possibility of holding by-elections, which are elections held in the single constituency to address the current concerns.
NOT ONE-SIDED
On the other hand, Commissioner Sase Gunraj later told the media that GECOM Chair, Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh’s vote was not in favour of any one side, but in favour of enfranchisement of electors who legally participated in the process.
“I am happy that good sense prevailed in the meeting, and that a decision was arrived at on the side of enfranchisement as opposed to disenfranchisement…,” he said.
Questioned on Alexander’s proposal to set aside the boxes, Gunraj contended that GECOM does not have the responsibility to set aside ballots cast, as this falls within the remit of the High Court.
“GECOM, in all of its powers, is still limited by the law, and the law states the specific instances by which a ballot can be invalidated and we have been giving due credence to those tenets of the law,” he stated.
Gunraj disagreed with the sentiments that the Commission has displayed inconsistencies in the fairness of its decision-making in the referenced Sophia case, as the same treatment that was given to those ballots was applied to a Pindora ballot box in the PPP/C stronghold area.
DOCUMENTS STILL MISSING
GECOM had initially decided that the 29 ballot boxes would be set aside pending an investigation but nothing has come out of the said investigation due to a failure to reach the requisite Deputy Returning Officers (DROs).
The DROs responsible for those areas were invited to a meeting by the Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield on June 6, 2020, and while they committed to being present, they were a no show. Poll bags were also checked but the documents were not found.
Questioned whether the Commission would consider reverting to the Statements of Poll (SOPs), Alexander said that GECOM is not dealing with the past documents during the recount.
Added to that, he said that the said SOPs remain flawed because there has been sufficient cases highlighted during the process to show that persons have illegally voted on behalf of the dead or migrated.
While some persons have taken to the media and social media to claim that they have been wrongly highlighted as migrated or deceased, Alexander said that it is for these individuals to make their contention known to the Commission.
He said that the Commission has turned to the legal authorities — General Registrar’s Office (GRO) and Immigration Department — to get information it can rely on and it cannot rely on possibly politically-motivated claims in the media or social media rumours.
Meanwhile, Gunraj said that he hopes that the tabulation process will continue today [June 8] and within June 8-9, the tabulated results will be known. Then, he said that his party will be eagerly awaiting the report of the CEO followed by the expected consideration amongst the Commission and the subsequent final declaration.
He reminded that the Gazetted Order only caters for three to elapse after the provision of the CEO’s report before the final declaration should be made.
Source: https://issuu.com/guyanachroniclee-paper/docs/guyana_chronicle_epaper_06_08_2020