OAS repeats call for implementation of modern tabulation system for early election results

Mar 04, 2020 News

Head of the OAS Observer Mission and former Jamaican PM Bruce Golding

By Rehanna Ramsay
In its preliminary report on the March 2020 General and Regional Elections, the Organization of American States, (OAS) made several key recommendations by which to strengthen the nation’s electoral systems
In the report the OAS noted among other things, the need for the implementation of more efficient systems for the timely delivery of the elections results. Guyana’s elections result usually takes days to be processed and declared.
Giving an overview of the preliminary findings of the OAS Mission, Head of the team and Former Prime Minister (PM) of Jamaica Bruce Golding told the press that a majority of the stakeholders whom the mission engaged expressed their concern about the length of time typically required to tabulate and declare the results of Guyana elections.
“The largely manual tabulation system, coupled with the country’s geography, infrastructure and population distribution, among other factors, can create significant challenges for the organization of elections and timely delivery of results,” Golding told members of the press at the Marriott Hotel in Kingston yesterday.
Golding said while it is recognized that Article 99 of the Representation of the People Act allows up to fifteen days after Elections Day for the declaration of the results, extended delays by the authorities in publicizing official data creates a window for the insertion of unhelpful speculation and uncertainty in the post-election period.
The former Jamaican Head-of-State noted that the elections commission should be considering implementing a more modern tabulation system for the allocation of votes.
“I recommend that the elections commission consider implementing a system to give preliminary results and make information available on elections day or the morning after.”
According to Golding, the development of a technological solution would see the transfer of statements of poll from regions to a central server through the establishment of a central computerized results receiving system.
The former Jamaican PM nonetheless commended the Guyanese people for their patience while waiting on GECOM to make the official declarations. He urged the nation to continue to keep the peace until those declarations are made.
During a press briefing earlier in the day, Chief Elections Officer (CEO) of GECOM Keith Lowenfield told the media that GECOM ‘s attempt to implement of a modern system met with difficulties.

“We tested that system at the University of Guyana student elections. We saw some of the problems that can be derived from such a system and the matter was deliberated by the representatives of political parties, but I daresay we are still where we are. It provided results for student elections, but there are other factors which govern the implementation or operationalisation of those recommendations.”
He said too that not all recommendations made will be accepted by the electoral body or its stakeholders.
On Monday, the OAS led a 20-member delegation to observe Guyana’s elections.
During a briefing with the press on elections day, Golding spoke of recommendations of the OAS Mission in 2011 and 2015 to improve GECOM’s efficiency
Golding told the media that “Regrettably, a lot of the recommendations made by the OAS Missions that were here in 2015 and 2011 are still languishing.”
Among the recommendations in the previous report by the OAS was for the implementation of a system of electronic tabulation of the preliminary results, given the concerns about the length of time it takes for the announcing of the election results.
Golding told the media, “It is not good to have an election on Monday and several days can pass before the people of Guyana can know what the outcomes of the elections are. That is courting mistrust; it is providing fertile ground for rumours and conspiracies and so on. And, in our discussions with GECOM, we certainly urged them to do everything possible to complete the tabulation and to have the results declared as early as possible. You would have to wait and see what happens after today.”
Notwithstanding this, the former Jamaican PM said, “You have to bear in mind, of course that, based on the geography of Guyana, there are remote polling stations where it could take time for the results to be conveyed. We’re told that, in some cases, they would have to use aircraft, [and] in some cases, you have to use boats.”
“Time would have to be allowed for that breakdown and care to ensure that in that process, whether the ballots are being conveyed by boat or plane, the ballot boxes and the statements of poll are carefully protected and the integrity is preserved.”
“But in them, we feel that we don’t have to wait until the last box or late statements of poll come in. Results can be fed to the people as they come in so that people can be assured that the process is working and not being deliberately delayed to facilitate anything that would be inimical to the free expression of the will of the people.”
In the 2015 report, the OAS Observer team lead by former Foreign Minister of Belize Lisa Shoman noted that while the results transmission process in Guyana contains careful safeguards in order to bolster the veracity and credibility of electoral results, the manual nature of the process is inherently time-consuming.