ANUG’s Chair believes recount will take much longer than 25 days

May 08, 2020 News

It looks like the Guyanese people will have to wait much longer than the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) says it should, for a Government to be sworn in on the basis of credible elections results. At least, that is the view of Attorney-at-Law and Chair of A New and United Guyana (ANUG), Timothy Jonas.

PPP Executive, Anil Nandlall

ANUG Chair, Timothy Jonas

He spoke to reporters during the second day of the National Recount on the lawns of the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.
“I am concerned about the 25- day original plan, because if you do the mathematics and you have over 2,200 ballot boxes, even if we get 20-30 done a day, that’s still 175 days, and not 25. We have a mathematical issue here…” Jonas said.
“The count, at least the room that I was in, is proceeding slowly…” he said.
Why is it progressing so slowly? Different persons have different opinions.
“Because the process is slow, not because anyone was intentionally delaying,” Jonas opined.
People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Executive and Attorney-at-Law, Anil Nandlall blames the Governing Coalition for raising many objections and GECOM for ending the process at certain stations too early.
A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) has been giving the process excessive scrutiny, and as such, has raised objections over the past two days over what its agents consider discrepancies.
“The pace at which the process is going is too slow. By the end of today’s process, only 40 boxes would have been completed. We saw again recurrent instances of stations being closed way before the scheduled 7:00 pm.”
This had happened on the first day as well, for a Region Four workstation, because it was decided that if the station started counting a new box, it would not complete the count before closing time.
“Stations were closed again at 5:00 pm and that is unacceptable. We can’t continue at this rate.”
He added, “The Chairperson had said to us after the first day or the first two days, the process will pick up significant pace. And we are hoping that that will happen from tomorrow. But as a result of the unnecessary queries that are being raised, persons are simply dilating, deliberately so. And we hope to eliminate that as the process continues…”
He said that the pace at which the process is moving needs to be improved.
GECOM has counted 65 ballot boxes in two days. At that rate, to count 2,339 boxes, GECOM would need 70 more days to complete the count.