— Harmon says coalition watching recount process with an eagle’s eye
THE A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) coalition on Saturday made clear its position and agenda in the national recount.
Since the commencement of the recount on Wednesday the party has been accused of making irrelevant objections and causing a slothful course.
APNU+AFC executive Joseph Harmon said he has heard the allegations and can say that the recount is not a simple mathematical process, but rather, one that has to pay keen attention to identifying discrepancies to ensure credible results.
He said he can say confidently that his party has nothing to hide and they would like all anomalies to be exposed.
“The PPP continues to say all we have to do is see what is in the box and see who gets this and who gets that, and that is the end of it. Now if that were to be so simple, we wouldn’t need an entire CARICOM delegation team here to scrutinise all that is taking place. It is because there are some credibility issues that need to be addressed. And those issues cannot be addressed by just giving mathematical calculations. There are questions with respect to whether people who are dead, voted, and people who are not around, voted as well… What has happened to the will of the Guyanese people is the ultimate question. And this recount will decide the matter,” Harmon posited.
He said that when things are hurried, important things tend to be overlooked and that is what their party is trying to avoid.
“When you’re hurry you tend to overlook things that you should pay attention to. And this is what is happening here. We’re are paying close attention to what is happening.
We have sort of given a name to our operation here, Operation Eagle Eye. Because we are looking at what is happening here with an eagle’s eye. Our agents here have gone through an extensive period of training, so they know what to look for. So it is that eagle eye that they will bring into this process,” Harmon said.
Because of the wide stretch of polling places during the March 2 elections, he said the party representatives did not get the same opportunity to watch the electoral process with an eagle’s eye. However, due to the fact that the recount is being conducted under one roof, it has put them in a better position to ensure that the results are fair and credible.
Harmon noted too that he is aware that persons from opposing parties are criticising their information being published, deeming it false. However, he said that the APNU+AFC is confident about the information that they put out to the public via their Facebook page, since the information is coming from their agents who are overseeing the recount stations.
“Several persons are masquerading as media with a bias [sic] agenda and are putting out info in favour of one or more political parties,” he said. But he reiterated that their information has no malicious intent, but is just keeping the public informed of their observations at the stations in the centre.
Speaking with reporters, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams echoed Harmon’s sentiments.
Williams said it ought to be noted that this recount process is two- fold: counting the ballots and credibility.
He said the existing laws of Guyana do not have anything to deal with a national recount and GECOM had to seek refuge in the constitution, and that enabled them to have this national recount, but GECOM is being guided by the rules of the order that was gazetted.
“GECOM has an order and it contains all that they intend to do. It is very clear.
The rules are in the order. And this has two folds, and that is credibility and to count the ballots. So let’s say there is 188 total voters on a particular list, and then there is 259 ballots in that box, what do you do? Would it be credible if you ignore? That is just an illustration to show that the national recount couldn’t contemplate just looking at the ballot as it comes out of the box… We have instance with 100 unmarked ballots.
We’ll be wasting time bringing the CARICOM here to just count the ballots,” Williams said.
Stressing further that the main question remains credibility, and to ensure credibility, the process cannot be done in haste, he said.
Source: https://issuu.com/guyanachroniclee-paper/docs/guyana_chronicle_epaper_10_05_2020