THE Private Sector Commission (PSC), in a letter to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), has proposed that the National Recount be streamed to those observers who will not be present during the tabulation process, due to restrictions instituted to suppress the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
In its proposal, the PSC has indicated that Opposition-affiliated Channel 28 (TVG) is willing to stream the recount at no cost to the Elections Commission. The proposal was among issues that were discussed when the Elections Commission met on Wednesday to further deliberate on the National Recount, a decision on which is still pending.
In total, five international observer groups have been accredited for the March 2 General and Regional Elections: The Carter Center, the European Union (EU), the Organisation of American States (OAS), the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and the Commonwealth; and 13 local organisations, including the PSC, the US Embassy, the Canadian High Commission, and the British High Commission. However, due to the need to maintain physical distancing at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, venue of the recount, the Elections Commission took the decision that there be no more than one local, and one international observer assigned to a workstation at any given time.
ROTATION SYSTEfM
The Commission noted, however, that the local and international observers can put a rotation system in place.
In an interview with reporters outside of GECOM’s Headquarters, Opposition-nominated Commissioner Sase Gunraj, whose Motion to have the National Recount live-streamed was rejected, said the PSC, in making its proposal, noted that Channel 28 has the technology to do live-streaming, and is willing to provide its service at no cost to the Elections Commission.
However, Government-nominated Commissioner Vincent Alexander, in a separate interview, made it clear that the PSC did not propose that the recount be live-streamed to the public.
“What they were proposing,” he explained, “is that we stream to those observers who will not be able to be in attendance, because we would have restricted the number of observers to one foreign and one local to every station.”
Iterating that the Private Sector Commission was very specific in its request, Alexander said it was an Opposition-nominated Commissioner who inserted the word, “live”, into the discussion.
LIVE VS PUBLIC STREAMING
“The proposition that came to us is not one for public streaming; it is one for streaming for observers, though there is a Commissioner who interpreted it to mean public streaming, and sought to open the question of public streaming,” Alexander said.
According to him, during the discussion on the proposal, two primary concerns were raised, namely, the lack of control over streaming, and the reported bias on the part of Channel 28.
“One concern is, while they are saying they want to stream to these observers, obviously that will be offsite, and GECOM would have, in so far, no control of the attendees, and therefore we have no guarantee that, given the manner of the behaviour at Ashmins [building], that such a forum would not be opened to everyone,” Alexander explained.
Section 90 of the Representation of the People Act prohibits live-streaming or public disclosure of the tabulation of votes, and, as such, it is important for the process not to be exposed to the public. Section 90 of the Representation of the People Act states: “Every person attending at the counting of votes shall maintain, and shall not communicate any information obtained at the recount, as to the list of Candidates for which any vote has been given.”
Secondly, Alexander said some Commissioners objected to Channel 28 facilitating the streaming of the recount, based on their assessment of the television station’s track record. “There were some Commissioners who were of the view that that news outfit, in its reporting, has been biased, and, therefore, we were not inclined to give that kind of opportunity to a news outfit which has been pre, prior and post-election biased,” the Commissioner said.
CHAIR WILL DECIDE
Both Alexander and Gunraj indicated that GECOM Chairman, Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh will decide whether to accept or reject the proposal, based on the discussion of the Commission, and the Electoral Laws of the country.
Last Friday, in rejecting a Mmotion by Gunraj to have the recount live-streamed from start to finish, the GECOM Chair referenced Section 90 of the Representation of the People Act. That Act, the GECOM Chair emphasized, speaks to the secrecy of the tabulation process. “Because of the secrecy, they cannot show the ballot; but what they can do, they can show the results after it would have been tabulated. I have no problem with that,” Justice Singh had explained in an interview with the Guyana Chronicle.
Apart from the proposal made by the PSC, Commissioner Alexander said that during Wednesday’s meeting, the Commission spent a considerable amount of time discussing issues that have already been decided upon. He posited that there is an Opposition-nominated Commissioner who is bent on revisiting issues already addressed. Though the Elections Commission has long decided on the methodology for the recount, and the number of persons that will be assigned to each of the 10 workstations, Alexander said the issues were again raised, in addition to that of “live- streaming”.
“We don’t have the understanding of how a Commission works; if a Commission makes a decision, notwithstanding your dissenting views, it’s a Commission decision, and a Commission cannot ad nauseam be reopening, reopening, and reopening its decisions. But that’s the mode of operation we are faced with, where people who are democrats; who talk about democracy, and who see this entire exercise as related to democracy, not understanding the democracy of the Commission where decisions are made, and you get on with the business,” Alexander said.
Source: https://issuu.com/guyanachroniclee-paper/docs/guyana_chronicle_epaper_05_01_2020