Mar 13, 2020 News
The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) is of the view that the best scenario to determine, accurately, the votes cast in favour of each list of candidates contesting the Region Four general and regional elections is to have a full count, ballot by ballot.
Its presidential candidate, Irfaan Ali, expressed this view during a press conference yesterday. He was accompanied by PPP frontbenchers, Gail Teixeira, Zulfikar Mustapha, Anil Nandlall, Priya Manickchand and Joseph Hamilton, at Freedom House.
The lot was, at the time, discussing what they consider to be a contemptuous breach of the law by Region Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo, when he returned to the use of a spreadsheet as the source of data for the ascertainment of the votes for the region.
Ali presented to reporters, the figures published by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) for nine regions, save for Region Four. He also presented figures purported to be the party’s collation of its own statements of poll for Region Four in company with GECOM’s declared results for the other nine regions.
He said that those statements of poll for the most populous region were published online for public scrutiny by the PPP.
The total announced by the presidential hopeful placed the PPP squarely in the lead for the general election.
During the press conference, the party leaders were challenged to explain why they would presume to announce election results before an official declaration by GECOM.
Nandlall argued that a declaration, as defined in the law, is a very specific doing, which does not cover what Ali had done. He further argued that Ali has freedom of speech.
Later, a question was posed by Kaieteur News about whether the announcement of these figures arrived at by the PPP sought to influence the public to use same as a verifier for GECOM’s results. It was made pellucid in the ruling of Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire on Wednesday that in the process of ascertainment, the returning officer is only required to rely on the statements of poll in the possession of GECOM.
Hence, the use of other statements of poll to verify those of GECOM is not necessary.
Nandlall and others appeared to argue against this distinction, stating that the statements of poll in the possession of the parties, PPP included, are identical to those in GECOM’s possession.
The falsification of statements of poll is possible. However, Manickchand offered that even if any of the statements of poll were in doubt, the best option, as offered by the group, would be for the returning officer to delve into the ballot boxes.
The group said that a fair count of all the ballots, from scratch, would prove the figures presented in Ali’s claim to be correct.
A full count is not applicable in the stage of the procedure that GECOM’s returning officer for Region Four is currently at. Mingo is currently at the stage where he is required to ascertain the votes cast in favour of each list of candidates from the statements of poll.
However, a party may make a request for a recount after the declaration of the results is made. If Mingo returns to the use of the controversial spreadsheet, the cause for the frustration of the tabulation yesterday, a request for a recount is highly likely.
