Elections 2020, Day 63…Recount to start Wednesday

May 04, 2020 News

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Tabulation of votes will be video streamed but not vote counts – GECOM Chairperson

By Kemol King

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has decided that the national recount will commence on Wednesday, May 6, 2020.

While much of GECOM’s work in preparation for the recount has been finalised, the matter of the live stream continues to be a sore spot for the Commission.
Due to staunch advocacy by many political stakeholders for the project to be streamed live, the Chair has made several concessions. She has agreed to a video and live stream of the tabulation of the votes, but only an audio stream of the counting of the ballots, Commissioners told Kaieteur News in telephone interviews.
She rejected a video stream of the count of the ballots on the condition that she did not want to expose the identities of the GECOM staffers. Commissioners did not appear sure of how an audio stream of the count would work. The Chair is expected to make a ruling on this today. Kaieteur News understands that Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield also expressed some concerns about the live streaming of the process.
The Chair’s only additional concession on this matter is that she wanted to also articulate to the public that the ballot boxes were not tampered with, perhaps, by publishing photos of them at the time of their opening during the recount, according to Commissioner Vincent Alexander.
Commissioner Sase Gunraj, however, continues to advocate for a complete audio and video stream of the entire process.
“Live streaming will inject the necessary credibility and transparency into this process, that we have nothing to hide. As a commissioner, and part of the Guyana Elections Commission, I have nothing to hide… GECOM has nothing, ought to have nothing to hide in this process and as a consequence, that [transparency] is something that we should focus on,” Gunraj said.
While he understands the Chair’s concerns about concealing the identities of the staffers, he doesn’t entirely agree. He posited that his bottom line is to ensure that all measures should be implemented where possible to make the process transparent. He added that any person who is opposed to having the complete live stream done may have something to hide.
“The process belongs to people and the people should have access to it,” Gunraj said.
The Chair is expected to make her final deliberations on the matter of live streaming, today. Alexander said that she would put her articulation in writing.
Commenting on the matter of live streaming, Alexander said that Justice Singh considered the proposal for live stream based on advocacy for it in public discourse, and explained that she is attempting to “lower the tempo of aggression directed at her.”
The Commissioner expressed his view on the “troubling arguments” being made by other Commissioner(s).
“We know that the recount is being done under Section 22 of the [Election Laws (Amendment) Act] and Article 162 of the Constitution.”
Those provisions speak to GECOM’s authority to do as it sees fit to ensure fairness and impartiality, and to GECOM’s authority to remove difficulties that may arise in the application of the legislation that governs the electoral process.
He explained that some Commissioner(s) are advocating for the use of those provisions to give effect to the live stream, while they argue against the use of those provisions GECOM has already decided to use to determine the extent of the recount.
Here, he is referring to the argument between Commissioners about the extent of the count, whereby Opposition nominated Commissioners generally argue that it should be a numerical count, while Government nominated Commissioners generally argue that there should be a more comprehensive examination of the ballot box to reconcile all of its contents. The Chair has settled on the latter.
Alexander expressed that, if Commissioners are so adamant that a live stream of the count would increase its transparency, it would only make sense if they agreed with advocacy for an examination of the ballot boxes on similar grounds.
Otherwise, Commissioners indicated that the role of the CARICOM team was clarified; that there is no longer reference to a “CARICOM High Level team” but a “CARICOM scrutinising team”.
This was necessary, explained Alexander, to make it pellucid that the team’s role is not a supervisory one.
Alexander stressed also that the team’s role makes it separate from the observers.
Alexander explained that the role of the observers remains the same; that they will only observe.
The party representatives, he said, will have the privilege of seeking clarification from work stations and making objections. In these cases, the Chief Elections Officer and the Commission may be asked to express their views. When there is a dispute, he explained, there will be a clear line of command. The dispute will be addressed by the supervisor, and if it is not resolved there, it will move up the line from District Coordinator to Chief Elections Officer to the Commission.
Though some political stakeholders had advocated for a sequential count of one region at a time, the Chair has not budged on that matter, Commissioners said. It remains that the regions will be counted simultaneously, starting with Regions One, Two, Three and Four. Two workstations will count Region One; two will count Region Two; three will count Region Three; and three will count Region Four.
The Order for the recount is expected to be gazetted today after some minor adjustments are incorporated.
GECOM meets at 9:30 this morning to finalise decisions on live streaming, as well as the order.

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