AHEAD of the highly-anticipated national recount, the Guyana Elections Officer (GECOM) conducted a training session with more than 80 of its employees, detailing the procedures that would be employed once the recount commences.
The exercise was conducted on Thursday at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) where the votes cast at the March 2 General and Regional Elections will be recounted under the watch of a high-level Caribbean Community (CARICOM) team. Chair of GECOM, Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh; and the Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield were among the officials who were present.
On the margins of the training session, GECOM’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Yolanda Ward, told reporters that the approved operational plan for the national recount was explained in detail to the elections officers.
According to that plan, there will be 10 workstations operating for a period of 11 hours – from 08:00hrs to 19:00hrs on a daily basis. Eight of the 10 workstations will have no more than 14 persons assigned inclusive of four GECOM personnel, while the other two workstations will have no more than 10 persons. Each workstation will have a supervisor.
“The process this morning is basically to go through the methodology that has been developed for the recount, to apprise the staff of the procedures that it entails and actually to give them a walk through as to the respective stations that they will be at,” Ward explained.
Importantly, she said, the recount, which for a large part entails tabulation of the votes for both the regional and general elections, will be executed in accordance with the Constitution and the election laws of the country.
According to the plan, the votes cast in District Four will be tabulated simultaneously with other districts. Of the 10 work stations, three will be assigned to District Four – the country’s largest electoral region. At each workstation, the process would be initiated with a checklist to ascertain the contents of a ballot box. Once that is done, the ballots would be counted in a manner similar to the process employed at polling stations at the close of poll. The votes cast in favour of each List of Representatives will be recorded on Statements of Recount as against a Statements of Poll.
During the tabulation of the votes, each ballot will be projected for scrutiny by those who are entitled to be there such as party agents and observers. GECOM, Ward said, has already sourced high definition cameras and all other equipment necessary to ensure that the ballots and Statements of Recount (SORs) are projected as clearly as possible.
“There is a process in terms of ballots being projected and shown to those persons who will be present at the count for the respective stations…and so those cameras [and other equipment] will be there to ensure that all the participants in the room will be able to see and will be able to scrutinise the ballots,” the PRO explained.
Additionally, the elections officers were briefed on the precautionary measures that would
be enforced throughout the recount, which is expected to span for a period of 25 days. Those measures are reportedly in accordance with guidelines provided by the National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF). Included in those guidelines is a recommendation that persons involved in the recount at the Conference Centre should have their masks changed every 30-60 minutes, however, Ward said while she is unaware as to whether that particular guideline will be implemented as stated, she is positive that at all times masks will be worn by those involved in the recount.
The other recommendations include the need to sanitise frequently and for all involved to remain hydrated. “Rooms must have a table at the entrance and exit with disposable face masks, hand sanitisers with minimum 70% alcohol, disposable gloves, disposal hand tissue, for example, Bounty tissue, foot pressed type-rubbish bins with garbage bags to avoid touching,” the Task Force said in its report to the elections commission.
That aside, the GECOM Secretariat, Ward noted, is training an excess number of elections officers, some of whom include returning officers, to ensure that at all times, staff are available to execute the mandate of GECOM.
“We intend, in keeping with the COVID-19 guidelines, not to have the staff work every day but on a rotational basis and also to have staff on standby to ensure that we don’t have any slippage or pause in the process to ensure that the recount is done in an expeditious manner,” Ward said.
In keeping with the COVID-19 guidelines, the elections officers involved in the recount process will work every other day. Even as the training was in session, tents were seen being erected on the lawns of the conference centre. On Wednesday, Stain Masters Guyana had commenced the process of cleaning the facility. The building is expected to be fully sanitised before the recount starts.
While the GECOM Secretariat is preparing for the national recount, a date has not been set, however, the elections commission has assured that the recount will commence shortly. It is awaiting an arrival date for the CARICOM high-level team. The CARICOM officials are expected to validate the electoral process.
Source: https://issuu.com/guyanachroniclee-paper/docs/guyana_chronicle_epaper_05_01_2020