May 10, 2020 News
The APNU/AFC Coalition has code-named their recount operation ‘Eagle Eye’.
According to Campaign Manager, Joseph Harmon, they are carefully keeping an eye on the ongoing national recount of ballots cast at the March 2, 2020 polls.
The Opposition’s – People’s Progressive Party (PPP), along with other smaller political parties, have bemoaned the ‘many objections’ being brought to the fore by Coalition party agents during the recount process, citing that it is a clear ploy to delay the elections.
However, Harmon told reporters outside of the Arthur Chung Conference Centre that these queries are merely to guarantee that the process is fully scrutinised and to ensure the utmost transparency.
“We have given a name to our operations, ‘Operation Eagle Eye’ because we are looking at what is happening here with an eagle’s eye. All of our agents here have gone through an extensive period of training so they know what to look for. It is that eagle eye that they will bring into this process.”
According to the official, ‘Operation Eagle Eye’ will pick up on discrepancies that may have been overlooked during the closing count of polls on March 2, 2020.
He explained that: “Once people are in a hurry, you tend to overlook things that you should have paid attention to. And this is what is happening here. We are paying careful attention to what is happening here.”
“We had polling agents across this country and you are likely to have persons who are not as efficient as they should be. This recount is taking place in one location so they can lookout. Some things might have slipped through on March 2, but we should be able to catch those things here.”
Harmon also denounced calls for the recount process to be a numerical one.
According to him, there are credibility issues that need to be addressed and those issues cannot be addressed by just mathematical calculations.
“You have two things; one… you have the integrity of the process and two you have the numbers that are actually casted. They are saying that all we need to do is see what is in the box. Now if that were so simple, we wouldn’t need an entire CARICOM here.”
Alluding to those issues, Harmon said, “There are questions about whether people are dead voted, and people who are not around. So even if you are to say, 10 for you, 15 for me, how credible are those numbers. Is this a true reflection of the will of the Guyanese people? And that is the ultimate question that needs to be answered.”
Harmon disclosed that he has written to the Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission, Ret’d Justice Claudette Singh, requesting a meeting to iron the many issues that were raised.
“This recount will decide that matter and this is why we have done everything to ensure that this process is done properly and thoroughly,” he said.
On Misinformation
In response to allegations leveled against the Coalition on their alleged misinformation campaign, Harmon told reporters that, “we are confident about what we put on our pages.”
“We have been putting out information which we have been getting from our agents here and which is credible information, that’s what we have been putting out.”
However, many of the reports that have emanated from the party have been debunked by GECOM’s PROP Yolanda Ward and other party agents.
Many of these allegations include a secret tabulation room meeting, dead voters and stopped counts among others.
Harmon maintained that “this is not what we are claiming, this is what we know happened.”
“This is not what we manufactured or something that came out of the imagination of anybody. This was something that our officers actually saw.”