A drowning man will clutch at any straw

May 11, 2020 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The President of Guyana, David Granger, described the elections as free, fair and orderly. If the elections were rigged then they cannot be considered as free and fair.
International and local observers have made similar pronouncements about the conduct of the elections. They all congratulated the Guyanese people and GECOM on the conduct of the polling and the close-of-poll activities on Election Day.
At the close of polls, the votes were counted and statements of polls issued. The polling and the counting of the votes were witnessed by polling agents of the political parties. The main political parties would have deployed its party agents to almost all the polling stations. There were no reports from any of these agents of misadventure or irregularities.
The results of an election are decided by the ballots. The will of the people are reflected in the valid ballots. Once the ballots are accurately counted and tabulated, this represents the democratic will of the people.
After the counting of the ballots, the results were posted up outside the polling stations. These results constitute the valid results of the elections unless there is a recount.
The problems that arose after March 2nd were due to the less than transparent tabulation of the results for District 4. The problems could have been averted if persons within the Commission had carried out their responsibilities. The tabulations, at the District level, were going fine and had been completed in 9 of the 10 Districts. With slightly more than 400 ballot boxes to be tabulated in District 4, the process took an abrupt turn and its transparency became clouded. Questionable declarations were made.
It is these declarations, rather than the original count, which has led to the need for a national recount of the ballots. But a recount could have been avoided if there was honesty and integrity involved.
The main political parties would have known by the morning of 3rd March 2020 the outcome of the elections. But the losers were unwilling to conceded.
No election is ever free of procedural problems. In 1997, some of the statements of polls for District 4 ended up in the ballot boxes rather than being sent to the Returning Office and GECOM Headquarters. The use of the voter Identification card was also later deemed to be unconstitutional. The Caricom Audit Commission which did the recount of the 1997 ballots upheld the declared results despite these and other procedural irregularities.
An election can be vitiated on the basis that there was substantial non-compliance with the elections law and distinct from elections procedures. Procedural mistakes would not qualify to vitiate an election unless it can be established that had such mistakes not taken place the overall outcome of the results would have been different.
In Medhurst v Lough Casquet, the Court ruled that once the elections were conducted in substantial compliance with the electoral laws and that the breaches did not adversely impact on the success of one candidate over the other(s), the elections should not be vitiated.
It is important that the supporters of the APNU+AFC understand these legal principles. Right now they are like downing persons clutching at straws, one of which is that because some Occurrence Books were not in the ballot boxes in one Region that the elections were rigged. The Occurrence record, is an administrative document which does not materially alter the results of the elections, witnessed to and signed to by the persons in each polling station, and posted up outside of that station for public viewing.
The recount exercise which is taking place was necessitated because of the less than transparent declarations of slightly more than 400 statements of polls from District 4. Not because of problems at the level of the polling station.
There were also requests for recounts for other Regions. It is the recount of the ballots that are material and which will inform the overall declaration of the Presidential candidate, not whether the Occurrence Book or Final Voters List were not where they were supposed to be.
Those who are pinning their hopes on the elections being overturned because of these anomalies are going to be sorely disappointed. The results of the elections will be decided by the count of the ballots.
No less a person than the President has publicly said that the elections were free, fair and orderly. Where the disorder came in was in the tabulation process.

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