THE TIMELINESS OF THE RESULTS

Dec 04, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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It has passed notice that the declaration of the results of this year’s elections were done in record time. Never before in the history of elections has the outcome of the elections been known in under five days.
In the old days when there was central counting (if it can be called that) of ballots, the final results took more than one week to be made known. With the counting of ballots at the place of poll, the possibilities for voter fraud were reduced significantly.  However, the final tallying of results still took an inordinate time.
In the 1997 elections, the decision to input results in the computers proved to be time- consuming and in the end, the method of simply adding the results manually was far quicker. Since then there have been significant improvements in the transmission and tallying of the results, but the requirements of the law still do not allow for an overnight declaration of the results since the statements of polls have to be thoroughly checked, verified and then declared, firstly by the returning officers, and then by the Chief Elections Officer.
It is better this way also, given the problems that could arise should there be the slightest of mistakes. Such mistakes can be very costly because of the manner in which seats are allocated. A few votes could make a difference in a situation where all the top-up seats are not allocated in the initial division, ensuring that the party with the highest remainder will get an additional seat. There is a method of determining these calculations that is spelt out and explained in law, and which in fact, did allow in previous elections for The United Force to gain a seat.
Given that sixty-five seats are being decided by less than four hundred thousand voters, explains why it is important that GECOM does not sacrifice accuracy for expediency, because the slightest of mistakes can subject the entire process to suspicion. Should there be a few mistakes made, then this could lead people to lose confidence in the elections and the consequences of such actions are well-known.
As such, GECOM has to be thorough, and it has to also follow the prescribed process. In the 2001 elections, the results were not questioned by the main opposition, just the manner in which the results were declared, and the matter was taken to the courts to ensure that the results were done in the prescribed manner. This did not change the results, but it did delay the eventual final declaration by one week, whilst the court deliberated on the arguments before it.
GECOM is therefore conscious that nothing less than an impeccable election would suffice. This places an onerous burden on the electoral body to come up with a near perfect election. And to its credit, GECOM has again come out with flying colours.
While many, including election observers, expect that in this modern age that the elections commission would be able to make a speedier declaration of the results, the fact remains that a miscount of even a few votes could throw the entire process under a cloud of suspicion and lead to riots.
No one should expect that the final results of elections in Guyana are going to be officially available within a few hours of the close of polls. That is logistically impossible, since statements of polls have to be flown in from remote locations and the various returning officers have to tally their various statements of polls. In Region 4 alone there are more than seven hundred statements of polls to be tallied, so this will take time.
Despite this, the various political parties would know the outcome of the elections hours after the statements of polls. They would have had party agents in the polling stations who would have received copies of the statements of polls and would have called in these results to their parties. So that by midnight of polling day, APNU, for example, would have known that it had lost the presidency and the right to form the government. The PPP would have also known then that it had narrowly failed to secure a parliamentary majority. The AFC would have known also, and it did indicate this, that it would hold the balance of power between the two main parties, in the parliament.
The fact that GECOM was able to declare the final results in record time, though not as speedy as some expected, shows the improvement in efficiency within the elections body, and for that the Chief Elections Officer, his staff, and the Commission itself deserves the highest praise for bringing off a successful election that has been certified as free and which has met international standards.
Guyana should be proud of this achievement given what existed in the past. We are getting there in terms of developing capable electoral machinery, and all Guyanese can take pride in the fact that election results can now receive international acknowledgment.

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