…GECOM to decide on way forward; APNU+AFC says let’s get to the bottom of it
…PPP/C and aligned Commissioner dismiss it as immaterial
THREE days into the National Recount, a ballot box was discovered with more ballots than electors marked as voted on the Official List of Electors – an anomaly which has been brought to the attention of the Guyana Elections Commission.
“There was one instance where the number of ballots in the box is greater than the number of names crossed off on the voters’ list,” Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Commissioner, Vincent Alexander, explained on Friday, while making the disclosure.
Though he did not disclose the name of the village from which the ballot box came, the Elections Commissioner pointed out that the excess ballots amounted to approximately 20 and were included in what was described in the documents as the total number of votes cast. Under the Electoral Laws of the country, the Presiding Officer at a Polling Station is required to cross off the names of eligible electors who would have voted on E-Day.
“It is interesting that the Presiding Officer would fail to mark off 20 plus names; that’s rather interesting,” the Elections Commissioner said, in response to a question posed on whether it was possible for the Presiding Officer to simply have failed to mark off the names of the electors who voted. He said, too, that there was another case in relation to Affidavits
“There was instance today again where the number of people who voted by Affidavit exceeded the number of Affidavits in that Polling Station; in other words there were people who did not vote with ID cards and they were required to sign Affidavits. [However] the number of such people recorded as having voted exceeds the actual Affidavits recorded,” the Elections Commissioner further disclosed
Alexander said the discovery of the excess ballots, and the issue of missing Affidavits were issues of active discussion when the Elections Commission, chaired by Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh, met on Thursday at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) where the National Recount of all votes cast at the March 2 General and Regional Elections is unfolding.
“What we have decided is that matters of that sort, the count will be completed but we will no longer include those boxes in the tabulation until such time that the Commission has adjudicated on these boxes. They will be held in abeyance pending the Commission’s adjudication,” Alexander explained. It is however unclear when the Commission will adjudicate on the issue. The Commissioner indicated that the Commission has committed to treat with such issues as matters of urgency.
Ahead of that decision, Alexander noted that, in keeping with the policy of the Commission, an individual can be blacklisted by GECOM if found to have compromised the electoral process. He said that GECOM will not entertain persons who are either incompetent or involved in wrong doing. “This is about building a credible machinery for credible elections,” Alexander said.
Examining documents
The Elections Commissioner had cited the anomaly while underscoring the importance of examining the documents in the ballot box, including the List of Electors, before the actual ballots are recounted. The documents being reviewed in accordance with the Checklist include the number of electors struck off as voted – marked on the List of Electors; the number of ballots added through Intermix of Disciplined Forces and Non-Residents; the number of electors who voted by use of Certificates of Employment and the Number of ballot counterfoils (ascertains used ballots).
Inconsequential
But Elections Commissioner, Sase Gunraj, in a separate interview, told reporters that the anomalies discovered are inconsequential to the recount. “The issue is, what we are doing at the end of the day is a recount of the votes,” Gunraj said while noting that if there are anomalies they ought to be included in the observation report as the system provides for.
Unlike Alexander, Gunraj contended that the discrepancies are immaterial and would not affect the outcome of the recount. “If a Presiding Officer deliberately did not mark off that list, how does that affect the number of votes? Everybody was in that station; and as I said this is a recount, this is a secondary layer; a count was already done at an appropriate time,” Gunraj said as he became heated upon being pressed for answers.
Iterating that it is merely a numerical recount, Gunraj said Section 89 of the Representation of the People Act does not provide for the examination of documents during a recount, and as such GECOM should proceed to count the ballots without delay. However, Alexander has repeatedly indicated that the National Recount is not covered under Section 89 of the Representation of the People Act.
In fact, the Order, which legally triggered recount, makes no reference to Section 89 of the Representation of People Act but rather Article 162 of the Constitution and Section 22 of the Elections Law (Amendment) Act.
Like Gunraj, the Presidential Candidate of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Irfaan Ali, dismissed reports of discrepancies, in addition to the decision of GECOM to examine documents in accordance with the Checklist provided for in the Order.
“There are explanations for all of these things. At the end of the day this is a recount of the ballots that were cast, in some of the ballot boxes you had the mixing of the Disciplinary Service Votes; you have votes by certificates of employment, so the ballots are there, the ballots are reconciling. So it is the ballots that matter at the end of the day,” Ali told reporters. He said the PPP/C sees no difficulty. In fact, the PPP/C, weeks ahead of the recount vehemently objected to the documents being scrutinized.
“An elections staff may not have ticked all the names; the presiding officer may not have ticked all of the names, that is immaterial to the ballots; at the end of the day it is the ballots,” the PPP/C Presidential Candidate maintained.
But A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Candidate, Ganesh Manipaul, whose workstations unearthed a number of discrepancies on Thursday, underscored the importance of scrutinising the documents as provided for in the Order gazetted by GECOM on Monday.
He said in the station, which was assigned to Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), there was a ballot box with 11 oaths of identities that were unsigned. “An oath of identity is taken when you do not have your Identification Card and it means that you have to present yourself to the Presiding Officer, take the Oath of Identity and sign confirming that that is who you are before you proceed to vote,” Mahipaul explained while noting that there eight (8) signed Oaths of Identity.
The APNU+AFC Candidate said the discrepancies present a very worrying situation. He said given the anomalies, it is important to scrutinise the documents, as he hinted at the possibility of the electoral process being compromised at some stage.
“We are clearly seeing who was afraid of the recount, when you actually go into these ballot boxes and you find these discrepancies. I guess the truth is now coming out,” Ganesh said.
GECOM Public Relations Officer, Yolanda Ward, said the Order and the Work Plan were clear. “They do focus on other contents in the box because for every recount you have to go to the other envelopes that would focus on spoilt and rejected ballots, because you can very well have a situation where a ballot has become rejected or has become valid, so it is important not to focus on what is deemed a valid vote in the box and not go to the other contents in the envelopes to scrutinise because you may very well have a situation where a ballot, which has been deemed rejected becomes valid,” Ward explained.
Source: https://issuu.com/guyanachroniclee-paper/docs/guyana_chronicle_epaper_09_05_2020