— says recount is commission-supervised
AS the national recount of the March 2, 2020 elections picks up steam at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is faced with many allegations that are being disseminated to the public through specific media houses.
These allegations published in some newspaper articles are purporting a narrative to the public that the recount process is being deliberately delayed and that a ‘Lowenfield Secretariat’ is making decisions.
This narrative, in essence, questions the credibility of the legal body that governs Guyana’s elections.
On Saturday, GECOM Public Relations Officer Yolanda Warde brought clarity to the media on this issue, saying that it is important that the Order for this recount be understood, and that the public is aware of the legal operations and how their actions are governed.
“These decisions of the Commission, GECOM has to be guided by what is in the workplan, and, of course, what is in the Order that has been gazetted,” Warde said, adding: “And so, some of these things that are coming up as issues by party agents were already decided on by the Commission. So when the Commission now has to go back and revisit some of those things being brought to the fore, it requires some amount of patience in the deliberation to ensure the matters are ventilated at the level of the Commission, and they’re able to provide the necessary guidance going forward.”
Speaking specifically to the Order, Warde said: “There are some key things outlined in the Order, and I think that a lot of persons, even persons who are integrally involved in the process, are missing those key details in the Order. Particularly, I read some newspaper articles that refer to a whole aspect in it as the ‘Lowenfield Secretariat’ making decisions. I want to say, particularly, that this recount is what is termed a Commission-supervised recount, and therefore what is in the workplan, though prepared by the Secretariat, was properly ventilated at the level of the Commission.
The Order that was prepared and signed by the Chair, was properly ventilated at the level of Commission, and the necessary approval went forward. The process is outlined in the Order that any deviation from that process requires a revisit by the Commission. And so, what the Secretariat is implementing by the respective workstation, is basically a guide from that workplan approved by the Commission, and that Order was also signed by the Chair of the Commission and gazette.”
Based on the aforementioned, she highlighted that there is nothing sinister to be accusing the Secretariat of trying to delay or derail a process, “because we have to be guided by what is included in that gazetted Order”.
In addition to that, she noted that Day Four went through without any major issues being raised.
“We haven’t had any major issues for today. We still have some questions coming to the fore, such as the validity of a ballot and those things; nothing that can really cause a long delay. Only recently we had an issue where the vote was valid, but when we looked at the back, the person’s signature was there. And once you can identify an elector, the ballot cannot be accepted. So those types of minor issues we have coming up at the stations, but we were quickly able to resolve those issues,” Warde said.
Source: https://issuu.com/guyanachroniclee-paper/docs/guyana_chronicle_epaper_10_05_2020