PPP opposed to Lowenfield having sole custody of statements of recount at any time

May 06, 2020 News

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has objected to Chief Elections Officer of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Keith Lowenfield, being the sole custodian of the statements of recount at any time during the National Recount of votes, set to start today.
A statement of recount is a document produced by the GECOM, which will serve the purpose during the recount that a statement of poll serves during General and Regional Elections. After each ballot box is examined, a statement of recount is to be filled out, including the number of votes cast in favour of each contesting party, and other particulars.
The PPP is concerned that, for some time, during the recount, this document will be in the sole custody of the Chief Elections Officer. This is unlike the chain of custody of a statement of poll during elections, as they are prepared at the place of poll and placed where the public can see.
Like other occasions, the PPP is again registering its distrust for Lowenfield.
It quotes, from GECOM’s order for the recount that “The Statement of Recount shall be signed by the person conducting the recount and by the representative of each contesting party present, in the presence of the CARICOM scrutinizing team, representatives of Political Parties that contested the said elections, international and Local Observers accredited by the Guyana Elections Commission and advisors to the Guyana Elections Commission.
These documents shall be lodged with the Chief Election Officer and copies distributed to the signatories thereto, the CARICOM scrutinizing team, the Chairman and the Commissioners.”
The main opposition party has interpreted this section of the Order to imply that Lowenfield will have sole custody of the document for a period of time “without any oversight, whatsoever, before they are delivered to the other persons named in the provision.”
“This is the very Chief Election Officer, who has unlawfully refused to make SOPs in his possession public and has also withheld them from the Commissioners of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) despite their repeated request,” the party said in a statement.
The party submits that the copies of the statements of recount should be made and distributed first to all of the persons entitled to have them before they are signed, “so that if there is any discrepancy, it can be detected before the relevant persons sign them.”
The party also used the statement to call on the governing coalition to not “derail, frustrate and undermine the recount process.”

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