GECOM Chair to announce details of recount today

Apr 17, 2020 News

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By Kemol King

Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chair, (ret’d) Justice Claudette Singh SC is set to inform the Commission, today, of her final decisions on the modalities of the recount. Those modalities are key to determining the duration of the recount.

This is what was communicated to reporters by Commissioners Vincent Alexander and Sase Gunraj, following the Commission’s meeting yesterday. GECOM was set to make these determinations a few days ago, but the decisions have been postponed time after time for varying reasons, even as Commissioners have noted the growing frustration and impatience of the electorate.
The two Commissioners said that there would be no meeting of the Commission today. Singh is expected communicate her decisions to them via email.
The Commissioners aired their proposals exhaustively during yesterday’s meeting and the Chair has opted to take all of the proposals under advisement.

Commonwealth Senior Technical Advisor Dr. Afari Gyan was present in the meeting, according to Gunraj, and the Chair is expected to consult with the advisor before making her decision. The Chair will also consult with CARICOM, who is expected to field a mission to validate the recount.
Alexander explained that the decisions the Chair has to make, all surround the duration of the exercise, especially as it relates to how long it would take on average to examine one ballot box and how many counting stations are to be used. He informed reporters that she briefly adjourned the meeting yesterday to communicate with CARICOM, after which she reconvened the meeting.
She reportedly revealed that CARICOM expressed concern about Commissioner Gunraj’s proposal of 20 workstations, because it would involve many persons being in one compound.
In the context of COVID-19, Alexander disagrees with the proposal.
Gunraj had said that he estimated there would be about 15 persons per workstation, which meant 300 persons would have to be present in the compound of the Arthur Chung Conference Centre. This did not bother Gunraj, as he opined that the Centre had sufficient space to maintain the necessary social distance.
Gunraj said that he believed he had sufficiently justified his proposal in both his written and oral supplements.
Alexander had made a very different proposition on behalf of the Government-nominated Commissioners.
Alexander had made a proposal for eight workstations, following the visit to the centre. With his proposal, there would be two stations in the eastern wing of the auditorium, two in the western wing, one in the dining hall, one in the western half of the courtyard, and consideration for two on the eastern and western patios. He also suggested dining be done in the eastern half of the courtyard.
He had a lot to say in opposition to the proposal by the Opposition-nominated Commissioners.
He explained that Gunraj considered his [Alexander’s] proposal for workstations inside the centre, and suggested adding more on the lawns of the centre to add up to the 20 stations that he proposed.
Alexander said that Commissioner Robeson Benn appeared to assume Gunraj’s proposal as his own, at one point, and proposed that all of the 20 workstations be erected on the lawns.
He said that Benn, at one point, even argued that it would take 30 minutes to examine one ballot box. But Alexander, who said Benn’s assertion of 30 minutes is ridiculous, interpreted it to mean Benn considered the count as a mere numerical count, which he maintained it would not be.
Alexander and Gunraj had both noted that the nature of the count is dictated by the Representation of the People Act, where it describes the count as it would be done in a polling station after the close of polls. This process includes examining all the contents of the box, determining their veracity, and balancing the numbers.
Though Benn reportedly briefly attempted to build on Gunraj’s proposal, Alexander stressed that Gunraj’s proposal set the time to be taken on one ballot box at one hour, not 30 minutes.
Whichever proposals of the two Opposition-nominated Commissioners are considered, Alexander said that his contention continues to be that a large number of persons being in the compound would not contend well with the COVID-19 social distancing guidelines necessary to maintain everyone’s safety.
Alexander reiterated his statements from the day before, that the proposal of 20 working stations included working in tents, and that that would pose a security risk. On the other hand, if rooms are used, there would be better control of the operations, and less of a likelihood for the confusion of a “mob situation” as it had ensued at the Hadfield Street command centre weeks ago, he had argued.
On behalf of the Government-nominated Commissioners, Alexander said he presented, for the Chair’s convenience, the different durations his proposal of eight workstations would carry the recount, if the time taken for each ballot boxes averaged one hour, one and a half hours, and two hours.
Alexander said he laid “square on the table” that if the exercise he envisages is to take two hours per ballot box, the recount would require about 64 days; if the exercise takes an hour and a half per box, the recount would last about 48 days; and if the exercise took an hour per box, the recount would last 32 days. He said that the amount of time spent on one ballot box is a vital factor in evaluating the proposals.
Alexander did not indicate how many daily working hours these calculations contemplated. However, Commissioners previously noted that the Secretariat’s plan for the recount proposed working 10 hours per day. A calculation considering that proposal showed that Alexander’s calculations made sense, with a little time to spare.
He said yesterday that it appears as though the consensus on average time taken per ballot box would be an hour and a half. This would carry the recount less than 48 days, if the Chair decides to use eight workstations.
Besides the proposals by the two Commissioners, there is the Secretariat’s proposal which suggests the use of five workstations. That proposal was made before the field visit on Wednesday, but was not modified after the visit. The Chief Elections Officer did not indicate how long the recount would take under the Secretariat’s proposal.
Otherwise, the GECOM Chair reportedly told the Commission that CARICOM floated the idea of streaming the recount in real time to the CARICOM team or the observers if they could not be present. There is no confirmation of the CARICOM team’s presence for the recount.
Gunraj said that the Chair is still expected to make a decision on a proposal to have the recount live-streamed to the public as well, but that was not a suggestion made by CARICOM.
The Chair is also expected to communicate with the COVID-19 task force for clearance to conduct the recount.
Alexander said, should the next few days go smoothly, the public should look forward to a gazetted order for the recount over the weekend.

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