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The PPP is really not comfortable with a recount, but the GECOM Chair has so decided

Apr 26, 2020 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

By the time our weekly column is published, it would have been 54 days since Guyanese voted in the 2020 General and Regional Elections.
Efforts have been made during that time by GECOM to put a framework in place to enable a recount of all the votes cast by electors in all of the 10 administrative regions in the Country, but it is becoming pellucid that the PPP is not comfortable with a recount and audit, and is doing everything in its power to subvert such a process.
Take for example, last Thursday’s meeting of the Commission. As we all know, Attorney and PPP Commissioner Sase Gunraj usually sprints off to the media scrum to tell the PPP’s side of the day’s events, usually giving a one-sided version of events.
This time, it was the biggest, brightest and most knowledgeable of them all who stepped up and explained in clear and precise terms that it is the PPP – mainly Commissioners Robeson Benn and Gunraj – who are guilty of all the time wasting, stalling the recount and trying to reverse decisions previously made and agreed to, at previous meetings.
Vincent Alexander openly accused the other side of time wasting and even subterfuge in getting the recount and audit of all votes cast started.
“There are commissioners who continue to return to issues that should have been settled ad nauseam. I wouldn’t be surprised if tomorrow more time is spent on the work plan. Because, having dotted the I’s and crossed the T’s, people now want to see the black and white, which is an attempt to undo decisions that have already been made. We went through the exercise at the convention centre about the allocation of space. We have been written to by the relevant authorities and there is still one commissioner who wants us to listen to him, saying that he has individual advice that overrides the advice of the persons who are duly authorised to give advice,” said Alexander.
He also pointed to other time wasting and delaying tactics. Alexander said one PPP commissioner spent time reading out the names of persons, including Gecom staff, who he feels should not be allowed to participate in the audit process, even though there are no credible allegations of wrongdoing against them.
The PPP appears hell bent on getting its way, even trying to once again suggest that Region Four should be counted first – so they could abandon the remainder of the process if the numbers are in their favour.
GECOM Chair Claudette Singh has decided that all of the electoral districts will be recounted, the first four regions simultaneously, and this of course is regardless of what the PPP wants.
The issue of the draft order for the recount had come up for discussion at Thursday’s meeting and should have been finalized right there and then, but because most of the Commission’s energy was spent dealing with the efforts by Benn, Shadick and Gunraj to subvert the process, this key document was not dealt with until the very end, when all in the room were exhausted, burnt out and ready to beat the dusk to dawn curfew.
To further ram home the PPP’s sinister plan to avoid a comprehensive audit on events of March 2, 2020 Commissioner’s Gunraj draft, said Alexander, had included a proposal for Region Four to be among those counted first before moving on to the others. Such would give the PPP a chance to walk away from the process, declaring themselves winners as they have already told the world.
The Coalition stands firm in its call for all the ballots to be recounted and audited as this is the best method of determining a credible winner, even as there is no doubt in our minds that the PPP will remain on the opposition benches for the next five years.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)

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