– FOR DISTRICT ONE
l. The recounting of votes cast an 2nd :March 2020 for Barima/Wami, District One that has a voting population on the Official List of Electors (OLE) of eighteen thousand, nune hundred (18,952) electors, which represents two (2) geographical constituency sears of the National Assembly was completed on 15th May ‘2020. A total of ninety-nine (99) ballots boxes were recounted, resulting in a total of 12,111 and 12,060 votes tabulated for the contesting partes in the General and Regional elections, respectively.
2. Upon the conclusion of the recount process, 99 observation reports were compiled m a matrix by ballot boxes, summarising anomalies irregularities, missing statutory documents, and allegations of voter impersonatioo. Anomalies and irregularities are breaches of polling procedures outlined in the Representation of the People Act (ROPA) Cap 1::03 and the official manual for Presiding Officers and other Polling Day 0fficials (Revised 2019). Voter impersonation refers to instances where were cast in the names of deceased persons or in names of electors who were not themselves personally present to cast their ballots on 2nd March 2020.
3. The anomalies/irregularities include:
i. Thirty-six (36) instances where evidence to validate the wage of Form 4 ( certificate of employment) were missing;
ii. Sixteen (16) instances where Form 19 (oath of identity) that is required by the statutes for electors voting without ID cards were missing and;
iii. Twelve (12) instances where extra ballot papers were found in ballot boxes without the requisite documentation.
4. Recorded in the Observation Reports were allegations made by a contesting party that mere were twenty-nine (29) insurances of voter impersonation. The party alleged that based on their investigations in this region; there were ten (10 ) instances where deceased persons appeared to have, voted and nineteen (19) instances where electors who are alleged to be our of the jurisdiction were recorded as haring voted.
:5. In respect of the allegations of, voter impersonation, responses from the Chief Impersonation Officer md renew of the General Registrar’s Office Deceased Reports confirmed that these were of substance.
6. Approximately thirty-three (33) bill 01 boxes stand affected cine to a total of ninety-three (93) abnormalities, anomalies, and alleged voter impersonation. In other words, approximately 35% of all votes cast for general elections are associated with boxes that stand to be impacted due to either anomalies or voter impersonation. Specifically, 20% of the votes cast are impacted by anomalies, while 13% were impacted by voter impersonation, and 2% is impacted by both anomalies/irregularities and voter impersonation.
7. In this District , sixteen (1 6) Poll books were recorded as missing and fifty-two (52) instances where the evidence of polling activities was not recorded in the available poll books. In addition, the actual certificates of employment (Form 4) in thirty-six (36) cases and sixteen (16) missing oaths of identify (Form 19) were not available to support entries in me poll books. As a consequence, it cannot be reconciled that electors who cast ballots in these cases met the statutory)’ requirements.
8. Another procedural error is note worthy; two (2) ballots were rejected for WBD.I of official marl (unstamped ballots).
9. Potentially, 2,407 votes in twenty-three (23) ballot boxes stand affected by anomalies/irregularities, which is approximately 2014 of all votes cast for .List of Candidates in Distinct One. These anomalies/irregularities impact 19% of votes Cast for LJP, APNU+AFC, 28.2% of votes cast for LJP, 19.9% of votes for PPP/C, 20.8% of votes cast for PRP, and 33.3% of, votes cast URP.
10. On the other hand, the sum of 1,593 votes in nine {9 ) ballot boxes are impacted by allegations of vote impersonation, or 13% percent of all the votes cast in District One. Given the fact that it cannot be ascertained who perpetrated the acts of voter impersonation, evidence points to its impact on each List of Candidates. Of the nine (9) ballot boxes, 16.1% of votes cas1 for A.PNU+AFC, 16.5% of votes cast for UP, 11.7% of votes for PPP/C, 8.3% of votes cast for PRP, and 16. 7% of votes cast for URP are impacted.
11. Only one (I) ballot box or less than 2% of votes cast m District One are impacted by both irregularities and voter impersonation.
12. Against that backdrop, if the ballot boxes that are affected by the anomalies/irregularities and voter impersonation are extracted from the process, the total will be 7,917 votes cast with a distribution of 1,506 votes for APNU+AFC, 93 votes for LJP, S,298 votes for PPP/C, 17 votes for PRP and 3 votes for URP. A detailed statistical presentation of the categories of anomalies documented is summarized in Table 1 and detailed in Table (Broadsheet) annexed to this report.
13. Finally, the summation of anomalies and instances of voter impersonation identified in District One clearly does not appear to satisfy the criteria of impartiality, fairness, and compliance with provisions of the Constitution and the. ROPA Cap 1 :03. Consequent, on the basis of the votes counted and the information furnished from die recount, it cannot be ascertained that the results in this District meet the standard of fair and credible elections.
Source: https://issuu.com/guyanachroniclee-paper/docs/guyana_chronicle_e-paper_6-14-2020