GECOM still to officially gazette ‘recount’ decision

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has, through its Chairperson, retired Justice Claudette Singh, agreed to a national recount of the March 2, General and Regional Elections but the decision is yet to be concretised by being published in the Official Gazette.

Compounding the situation is the fact that GECOM’s records currently reflect regional declarations from at least nine regions in addition to the controversial results purported by Region Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo.

Speaking with members of the media following the last meeting of the Commission,

Government-nominated Commissioner, Vincent Alexander told media operatives that the regional tabulations of the declarations made by the various ROs have not been formally placed before the Commission by the Chairperson.

“She seems to have some reason why she is not; I don’t quite agree with her but she seems

to have a reason why she is not bringing them,” said Alexander.
He said, however, that at the end of the proposed recount, it is those declarations that will be put to the Commission for approval and conceded that the recount would firstly have to be published in the Official Gazette.
Asked about the fate of the existing declarations, Alexander told members of the media “that matter has not been discussed.”
He posited nonetheless, “implicit in the order [to be Gazetted] depending on how it is crafted may, in fact, nullify those results.”
The A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Commissioner to the elections body speculated that the order for the recount and its implication should be published and would be done once the Commissioners have finished working out the modalities of the recount.
Asked about the formal gazetting of the recount decision and the official scrapping of the existing declarations from ROs, Opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Commissioner, Sase Gunraj told media operatives, “I am hoping that can be done as immediately as possible.”
The Commission is set to meet again this week when it is expected to consider an amended proposal by the Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield for a national recount of the elections.
The GECOM CEO had originally proposed to have the recount done taking just over five months (156 days)—a proposal that had been widely rejected by the PPP and other political parties contesting the elections in addition to sections of civil society and the business community.
During a marathon meeting held at the Commission’s Kingston headquarters at the end of the week, the Opposition Commissioners presented their counter-proposal which demonstrated how the countrywide recount could be done in a shorter period of time.
Lowenfield’s work plan had contemplated using three work stations and had allotted two hours each per ballot box.
The Opposition GECOM Commissioners’ plan, however, proposes as many as 20 work stations so as to fast-track the process, with regions being tabulated simultaneously.
The two Commissioners, following the meeting, both spoke to the fact that there had been consensus on a decision to have the formal recount and that the Arthur Chung Conference Centre would be used.