ON day two of the national recount of the March 2, 2020 elections, the APNU+AFC were highly annoyed by an alleged secret meeting the PPP/C had in the tabulation room with the IT personnel.
APNU+AFC representative, Daniel Seeram, told the media that he was the one who witnessed that a private meeting was being had in the room.
“I was the first coalition rep to enter the room at exactly 8AM and there were GECOM staff, along with two GECOM technical personnel which were the IT supervisor and his assistant. Now what I saw at that time were the two IT officers surrounded by four PPP/C agents at the IT station. They were engaged in a meeting with four PPP/C personnel, two of which were Frank Anthony and Sasenarine Singh,” Seeram said.
He said that he asked what was being queried that they (APNU+AFC) were not a part of.
Seeram emphasised that there was no APNU or other reps present at that time.
“When I entered the room I said that I didn’t know that there was a very early morning meeting and that I wasn’t invited. They said that it’s not a meeting they’re just asking some questions. So I told the IT supervisor, that if questions are to be asked, they’re to be asked in an open manner and not by one political party alone. I came outside and I made the case clear that there was no APNU+AFC Coalition rep in the room. The IT persons did indicate the questions that were asked but I don’t think those were all the questions because when I got into the room, it got very silent when they saw my presence. Hence why I objected to what was happening. And then everyone quickly went to their seats, and they uttered no words after that,” he further explained.
Both Seeram and Minister David Patterson said that the action was highly irregular because that was the tabulation room. They said they can’t be certain that what they said they were discussing was what was actually being discussed.
PPP/C agent, Dr. Frank Anthony, came out and denied those claims, contending that it was an open query with the persons in the tabulation room.
“We have made some inquiry of the persons who are running the tabulation room, in the presence of all the observers there, asking them when these SORs will come to the tabulation room to start this process. The answer that was given to us was the CEO would have to approve when the tabulation will start this morning or what time of the day they can start. So currently we are awaiting that, and we don’t know what time this tabulation will start. Secondly, what we asked the GECOM staff that were there, yesterday there were some queries we were making during that process, and what we were asking is that, what we were querying yesterday wasn’t being broadcast. It seem that what the GECOM staff, only what they were saying was being broadcast. So what we asked is to correct that, and we are waiting on the response,” Anthony contended.
He claimed that all the parties had representatives there.
He said that their understanding of the tabulation process was that the GECOM staff would then bring to the GECOM staff in the tabulation room, their official copy of the SOR.
“Then that is displayed so that we can see and verify that that is the actual SOR and then it is also called out and tabulated. So that went on for just 6 SORs for Region One and up to now, apparently the other SORs have not come to the tabulation room,” Anthony said, claiming that that was all they were querying in the alleged ‘secret meeting’.
He also said that the meeting wasn’t a secret one and that there were about 15-20 persons in the room, including observers and the questions were asked openly.
“Every person in the room could have heard my question and the response and there were three APNU+AFC observers in the room who heard everything I said and the response that was given. And there were other party reps,” Anthony said.
A few hours after, GECOM’s PRO, Yolanda Ward, came out to the media and said she was not present at the time of the incident but based on her investigations, the GECOM IT staff were just approached with quuestions.
“I can’t understand that a space that is accessible by all party agents now becomes a private space. So that’s the first thing we need to establish. My understanding is that two of the IT staff were setting up their work area. They were approached by two agents with questions and it was from there that the whole thing spin out of proportion as being termed a ‘secret meeting’. I was not on site to have the details of what may have transpired, but based on my little investigation, that is what I garnered,” Ward said.
She later said that they had a meeting to discuss the allegation and they are still to deliberate on the matter.
Source: https://issuu.com/guyanachroniclee-paper/docs/guyana_chronicle_epaper_05_08_2020