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GECOM supervisor refuses to note Mingo’s inflation during recount – TCI
A supervisor working for the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) National Recount has refused to note an observation by The Citizenship Initiative (TCI) that the tabulation by the Region Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo, in one instance, inflated the votes of the governing Coalition, APNU+AFC.
TCI Presidential Candidate, Rondha-Ann Lam
This was revealed by TCI Presidential Candidate, Rondha-Ann Lam, on Facebook yesterday.
Lam said that for Ballot Box 4589 attached to a polling station at Plaisance Primary School, she noticed that the number called by Mingo for the tabulation which led to his March 13 declaration was higher than the number arrived at, during the recount.
Lam indicated that she asked the supervisor to note the inflation.
“The supervisor sought clarity and came back to say, we are only dealing with what is found in the boxes,” Lam posted.
“All of the observations are recorded, but this is the first time that the small parties have been meted out with this. I have proof of 25 boxes that were ‘Mingo’ed’ and I saw that the PPP has more numbers.”
A New and United Guyana (ANUG) Chair, Timothy Jonas, had also pointed out the refusal by certain supervisors to note observations being made by certain parties, an attitude he termed as “tyranny”.
“ANUG is keeping a close eye because it’s now getting hot. We are being placed at a homestretch where it’s at a stage where it’s the contentious ballots left to count,” Jonas told reporters on Wednesday.
He had also indicated that ANUG will request that GECOM note Mingo’s inflation on the observation reports and that he will inform the press whether the supervisor’s agree to note them.
Lam said that TCI has requested a meeting with the Chair to discuss the Supervisor’s refusal to note the observation, and other issues.
Lam added that the recount tally confirmed the numbers TCI had listed from the corresponding statement of poll. On her sheet of figures posted online, APNU+AFC got 305 votes from that polling station as of the number taken from the statement of poll. The recount showed that APNU+AFC got 304 votes, due to one previously valid vote rejected at the recount, Lam explained.
On her sheet posted online, 360 is written next to that particular box’s information, to indicate the number presented by Mingo.
Lam was present during the Region Four tabulation at GECOM’s Kingston head office. She explained that her party had taken audio recordings as well as notes of the numbers being called out.
“Here is the issue that you are going to run into with the East Coast boxes; when we were rolling around to the second declarations, one by one the agents were starting to leave the room. I was the last party rep, other than APNU+AFC left in the room. What happened to me that day was GECOM realised that I was making recordings of the previous boxes and they kept hovering over me, and that’s when I started to make the notes. So we have run out of audio now that we have reached the East Coast.”
Kaieteur News, using audio supplied by TCI, has verified that Mingo inflated APNU+AFC votes, and reduced PPP/C votes, for several East Bank Demerara polling stations.
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