The current slow place of the recount is not the fault of GECOM Chair

May 29, 2020 Letters

Dear Editor,

I read Mr. Christopher Ram’s article condemning Justice Claudette Singh and the pace of the National Recount at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre. I would not want to accuse Mr. Ram of being a busy body, looking for another fight to pick that he knows he cannot win. Neither would I want to accuse him of acting like a sour grape because he was passed over for Justice Singh to be the constitutionally appointed Chair.

Justice Singh is in charge of GECOM and will decide along with her fellow commissioners and Secretariat what is best to get this recount completed, with little risk to the health and safety of the people who are present.

Mr. Ram and others may want her to have more stations to hasten the recount. She has to be careful any decision made to add these stations comes at minimum risk for contracting the deadly coronavirus. Without a doubt the very people who are calling for more stations, God forbid, should there be a COVID case they will be among the first to blame Justice Singh.

She is condemned for everything even when she bends over backwards, entertains the views of all sides and tries to work with all. These detractors ignore the praises she gets for the good job she’s doing right now. Even the opposition praised GECOM for doing a good job.

The so-called slow counting of the ballot boxes is not Justice Singh’s fault. It is the fault of those Presiding Officers, Deputy Returning Officers and Returning Officers who did not do a good job on Election Day, March 2nd.

It is not Justice Singh’s fault that they did not put the pink slips in the box, mixed up the different party votes, didn’t count the votes accurately, they placed the ballot paper for one region in another region’s box. It is not Justice Singh’s fault the Polling Books (Vote bible) are missing in some boxes and those doing the recount cannot verify what happened that day.

It is not Justice Singh’s fault the Official List of Electors are missing in some boxes, ballots papers are not stamped, Certificate of Employment gone to the Olympics, people voting without identity, people living abroad on March 2nd voted, and even the dead woke up to vote. Those ballot boxes are in a mess!

Mr. Ram would understand these anomalies will affect speed and timing to complete the count. I’m sure when GECOM said it could be done in 25 days they never thought counting agents would have experienced such chaos. If these problems were not there, surely the count would have been faster.

Some will never be satisfied and find delight in making Justice Singh their target for the mess that happened during voting. I get the uneasy feeling this is deliberate. They don’t want a credible recount. They are uncomfortable what more may be exposed.

Justice Singh promised President David Granger, PPP Leader Bharat Jagdeo, CARICOM, the Court, all Guyana and the world that GECOM will do a recount. She promised GECOM will deliver credible results. No body objected to her promise. What I don’t know is if we can have credible results given the hurricane of problems in those boxes.

With the COVID 19 constraints and mess the ballot boxes were left in, efficiency cannot be sacrificed to achieve credible results. Instead of condemning Justice Singh there should be support and the offer of helpful advice to get through this turmoil and protect GECOM’s good name. She is during a Herculean task with quiet grace and dignity. I doubt many, including Mr. Ram, would want to be in her shoes now.

Yours truly,
B, Beniprashad Rayman