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OAS observer mission withdraws – says required standard of fairness and transparency not met by Region 4 RO
As it was carrying out its duties yesterday at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM)’s Command Centre at High and Hadfield Streets, the Organization of American States (OAS) Electoral Observation Mission found that a less than transparent process was being used by Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo to ascertain the results for Region Four.
In light of this, it took the decision to relinquish its role in the electoral process. The OAS made these and other statements in a missive it issued to the media yesterday.
The Observer team reminded that the ruling of Chief Justice (ag), Roxane George on March 11, last, stated that the Returning Officer or Deputy Returning Officer must determine the best method of tabulating the Statements of Poll and included the expectation “that the Returning Officer would act reasonably in ensuring a process that allows persons to observe what is being tabulated and how.”
Based on its observations, however, the OAS said that this did not occur.
The Observer Mission said that instead, and without any plausible explanation, the Returning Officer continued to ascertain the votes cast for each party list without affording the duly authorized candidates and counting agents an opportunity to see the Statements of Poll, so that they could compare them with the copies in their possession. It said that such a process could have been easily facilitated using the same technology which allows the tabulation to be displayed.
Further to this, the OAS Observer Mission stated that the Returning Officer’s defiance of the Chief Justice’s orders and expectations, as well as his refusal to allow the Statements of Poll to be exhibited, gives credence to the allegations that the numbers being tabulated do not correspond with the numbers appearing on the Statements of Poll prepared following the March 2 elections.
Also of significance for the Mission was the fact that that images of the Statements of Poll published by the PPP/Civic, on its website, which it claims were given to its polling agents after the ballots were counted at each polling station on the night of the elections, produce a result that is vastly different from that being declared by the Returning Officer, and would therefore have a decisive effect on the outcome of the national election.
To date, neither the Chief Elections Officer nor APNU has challenged the authenticity of the Statements of Poll published by the PPP/Civic by producing the copies in their possession, the Observer Mission stated. It said that the implications are deeply troubling and make it all the more necessary for the Returning Officer to display the Statements of Poll on which he is relying.
Even though it was pleased to note that the March 2 poll was, in almost all respects, well executed, as well as the fact that the subsequent tabulation of the Statements of Poll in the other nine regions was carried out in compliance with the law, the OAS registered its disappointment that it could not express similar sentiments for the process employed by the Returning Officer for Region Four.
Based on the numbers that have emanated since the process was first disrupted, the OAS team said it is unlikely that one can have a result that is credible and able to command public confidence.
Further to this, the team said that the legitimacy of any government that is installed in these circumstances will be open to question, while noting that this would be a terrible blow to the country’s democracy.
“The people of Guyana do not deserve this. (And) given the circumstances cited above, the OAS Electoral Observation Mission regrets that it has no option but to withdraw from Guyana…”
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