Recount starts today

May 06, 2020 News

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By Kemol King

The National Recount of votes cast in the March General and Regional Elections starts today at 8am. It is expected to close at 7pm, and will continue within that period every day until the recount ends.

The staffers of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) will begin with simultaneous counts of the ballots for four regions. Two workstations have been committed to Region One; two have been committed to Region Two; three have been committed to Region Three; and three have been committed to Region Four. The three workstations assigned to Region Four, the largest district, will remain committed to that region. Regions Five to 10 will be counted sequentially after Regions One to Three are completed, as the workstations become available.
Each workstation will be manned by at least four GECOM staffers, with facilitation for one local observer and one foreign observer. From all indications, there will not be enough international observers there to man all 10 stations. The Organisation of American States (OAS) has decided to send a few of its team members already in Guyana, but the Carter Center has not received approval from the National COVID-19 Task Force for their team to travel to Guyana.
Political parties will also be allowed to have one representative at each station. However, eight of the workstations can only safely host 14 persons while two can safely host eight persons. One police officer will form part of each group to ensure the security of the station.
The CARICOM scrutinizing team appointed by the Chair of CARICOM will have the privilege of examining all of the stations. The team consists of three members: Senior Lecturer at University of the West Indies, Cynthia Barrow-Giles; Commissioner at Electoral Commission of Antigua and Barbuda, John Jarvis; and Supervisor of Electoral Commission of St. Vincent and the Grenadines , Sylvester King. They are expected to submit a report to GECOM at the end of the process for consideration by the Commission.

One Commonwealth Observer has been retained by GECOM and will be observing the recount process.
The recount is set to last 25 days, subject to a review in the first week. The review will be informed by the examination of the average time it takes to count one ballot box.
To examine each of the 2,339 ballot boxes, the staffers will reconcile the contents of the box, as well as conduct a numerical count of all valid votes cast in favour of each list of each political contesting party.
After each ballot box is counted, a form called a statement of recount is to be filled out and taken to a tabulation centre. The figures on the statements will be tabulated to determine the votes cast for each contesting political party in a certain district.
Kaieteur News understands that GECOM will allow for ample scrutiny of the statements and the tabulation, including opportunity for the party representatives observing the count to seek clarifications and to object to any apparent disparity.
GECOM’s work plan states that a District matrix will be prepared of the votes cast for each list of candidates.

At the end of the recount, the Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, is expected to compile a cumulative statement on the final count for all 10 districts for submission to the Commission to determine the finality of the count.
GECOM’s order for the recount states that the Commission shall, after deliberating on the report, “determine whether it should request the Chief Elections Officer to use the data as the basis for the submission of a report to the Commission” for the declaration of the final elections results.
GECOM has stated categorically that the Chief Elections Officer and every other person appointed or authorized to perform any act or functions by virtue of the Order are under the Commission’s general supervisory power.
Ballot Boxes in place
Members of the Tactical Services Unit of the Guyana Police Force, in conjunction with other ranks, were seen early yesterday morning removing the containers of the ballot boxes from the Kingston holding place, to transport them to the venue for the National Recount, the Arthur Chung Conference Centre. The containers were carried on large trucks, escorted by armed police vehicles.
The political party representatives, allowed to keep watch on the ballot boxes at Kingston, are being facilitated at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.
GECOM tests live stream apparatus
The GECOM Chair only approved a partial live stream of the recount. The counting of the ballots will not be streamed visually. Only the audio will be streamed.
As for the tabulation of the statement of recount (the form replacing statements of poll), that stream will be both visual and audible. GECOM will also publish photos of the ballot boxes as they are taken out, to assure the public that they have not been tampered with.
GECOM’s Public Relations Officer, Yolanda Ward, said yesterday that the public can go to GECOM’s Facebook and YouTube pages, as well as its website, if they want to access the live stream. GECOM was observed testing the audio stream for some of the workstations yesterday on its Facebook page.
Each workstation’s audio stream was accessible yesterday on the Facebook page, and is expected to remain for the duration of the recount.
Tents set up for media operatives
Ward told reporters that the media operatives are “important stakeholders” in the electoral process. While there was some consideration for tentage to accommodate media operatives in the compound of the Conference Centre, the National COVID-19 Task Force has advised against the long-term use of tents there.
Commissioner Sase Gunraj said that he had advocated for arrangements to be made to accommodate the press. Ward, asked profusely about the accommodations, finally responded last night, indicating that two tents were erected at the entrance to the Centre to accommodate media operatives and that chairs are expected to be set up in the morning for their comfort.
Ward said that the media will be advised when there are briefings and would be allowed access inside the Centre, provided that they have been accredited by GECOM.
Kaieteur News/Radio will be providing on the ball coverage of the recount, including the open and close of the first day of the recount and any necessary breaking events.

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