GECOM not obliged to accept foreign observers’ recommendations

…defends slothfulness in release of elections result

Chief Elections Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Keith Lowenfield has fired back at the Organisation of American States’ (OAS) recent critique over its non-implementation of recommendations over the years, saying that the Commission is not obliged to accept any.

Lowenfield was at the time addressing members of the domestic and international media corps gathered for a press engagement with the GECOM top brass yesterday.
The CEO also used the occasion to defend the perceived slothfulness of the announcement of the results of the elections – another of the aspects of GECOM that had come under criticism by OAS Mission Head, the Right Honourable Bruce Golding.
Addressing members of the media, “not all recommendation made by bodies are accepted by agencies, that is given.”
The CEO admonished media operatives not to run away with the impression “that all recommendations made by bodies or observer groups must be accepted…we have to start at that premises.”

He suggested that were this to be the case, it would set a precedent that recommendations from all such bodies must be accepted, “that is not so.”
The OAS Mission Head had on Election Day – while observing the polling exercise – told media operatives that many of the recommendations coming out from that body over the years continue to languish unimplemented.
He told media operatives only two of the recommendations coming out of the OAS’ previous two missions for the 2015 and 2011 elections have been partially implemented to date and that “a lot of the recommendations made by [the] mission in 2015 and even in 2011 those are still languishing.”
He suggested, “…we may very well find ourselves in position where this mission is going to have to restate those recommendations because they are still valid.”

Defends slothfulness
Meanwhile, Lowenfield at his press engagement also defended the perceived slothfulness in the delivery of elections results, saying that the Commission was merely following the prescribed processes that have been outlined in the Representation of Peoples’ Act.
In fact, Lowenfield told members of the media corps that the laws under which elections are held in fact give the Commission up to 15 days for the announcement of the results.
It was reported that by midday on Monday the Commission had only completed processing just over 30,000 votes from 139 ballot boxes of the 2339 from Polling Stations across the country with an electorate list of more than 600,000.
He sought to explain the process which includes the public verification of each Statement of Poll across the districts in addition to the declarations that would have to be made in each region.
The Statement of Polls would then have to be physically transmitted to the CEO for another round of tabulation before a formal announcement can be made.
The CEO was quick to point out too that the law does provide a 24-hour period after formal announcements for a process of a recount, which can again be time consuming but lawful.
Lowenfield conceded slothfulness in the process being employed by GECOM and indicated that measures are being taken to expedite the process while not sacrificing security checks in the process.
According to the GECOM CEO, each of the Statement of Polls and ballots was produced with built-in security features.
Adding to the list of challenges, Lowenfield pointed to Guyana’s geography and weather – as was the case in Region Eight – as some of the reasons that prove to be challenging in getting elections results to the public in a timelier manner.
The Head of the OAS mission had a day earlier called on GECOM to ensure that the results of Monday’s poll be communicated in a timely manner.
He told media operatives that this was a matter that was raised with the Commission as was experienced in Guyana in previous years – the time that it takes for the results to be announced
According to the OAS Mission Head, “it is not good to have an election on Monday and several days can pass before the people of Guyana can know what the outcome of those elections are….that is courting mistrust, it is providing fertile ground for rumours and conspiracy theories.”