Coalition refuses to sign off Region 2 recount results – Protests labelling total votes as “valid”

May 21, 2020 News

Tabulation agent for the APNU/AFC Coalition, Daniel Seeram yesterday refused to place his signature on the final recount certificate for District Two over the use of the word “valid” to describe the ballots cast.

Declaration of results for the General Election from District Two after recount (left) and declaration made after the election (right)

The rationale behind the refusal reportedly stemmed from the use of the word “valid” to describe the votes because of the coalition’s claims that persons who have died or migrated were ticked off as having voted.
No evidence has been presented to support these allegations.
In the initial declaration, People’s Progressive Party (PPP) secured 18,788 votes while the Coalition secured 7,343 in the General Elections. However, the Statement of Recount (SOR) showed that the PPP secured 18, 785 votes while the Coalition secured 7, 340 votes.
This represents a vote drop of three for both the Opposition and the Coalition.

Declaration of results for the Regional Election from District Two after recount (left) and declaration made after the election (right)

Seeram, according to an ANUG tabulation agent, said that the party has issues which are still pending at the Commission level, which is why they cannot sign off on a document that is not reflective of a complete process.
Additionally, the tabulation agent for The Citizenship Initiative (TCI) Rondha Lam posted on her Facebook that “He [Seeram] says there are anomalies in the vote count which has the attention of the commission and will not sign on principle.”
When contacted via telephone, Seeram told Kaieteur News that he “would not be able to comment on the issue.”
All other political parties have signed off on the document.
Despite not signing the final results, Seeram did place his signature on the 105 Statements of Recount (SORs) tabulated at the end to get the final recount numbers.
PNC Executive Member, Aubrey Norton had told reporters that he doesn’t see his party signing off on any final declarations due to ‘credibility issues’.
He was at the time giving a preliminary review of the Region One count. Norton stated that “a signature is dependent on us accepting that it is credible and so far, its credibility is in question.”
Nevertheless, his party eventually signed off on the Region One results but this did not go without comment. Seeram was said to have preferred that the boxes read ‘total votes cast instead of ‘total valid votes cast’ before he signed off.
Questions were raised on whether his refusal to sign the final result would have an impact on the declaration but according to Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Commissioner Sase Gunraj, “Failure/refusal of a party to sign a Certificate of Tabulation does not render it invalid.”

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