Lowenfield’s logistical changes designed to slow down recount – GECOM Commissioner

People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Commissioner to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Sase Gunraj on Monday welcomed the addition of two new counting stations at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) for the National Recount of the ballots cast on March 2. He, however, nonetheless expressed reservations over the fact that the Secretariat has not used the additional resources to address the region with the largest number of ballot boxes to be recounted.

Speaking with reporters at the conclusion of day 13 of the recount exercise, Gunraj used the occasion to remind that Region One (Barima-Waini) was completed on Friday which led to the beginning of Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) and with the completion of Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) on Monday.
As announced by the GECOM Public Relations Officer, Yolanda Ward, one of the new counting stations would be assigned to Region Six while the other would be assigned to Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni).

According to Gunraj, this would mean that three stations would be addressing Region Six and a singular station to recount the ballots for Region Seven.
He noted too that even more worrying is that of the remaining 1700+ ballot boxes to be counted, in excess of 700 are from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) but the Secretariat maintains the three counting stations for that region.
According to Gunraj, the combined number of ballot boxes for the Regions Seven, Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) and Nine (Upper Takatu-Upper Essequibo) do not amount to more than 725.
He was adamant that it would have made more practical and logistical sense to have the new counting stations assigned to the ballot boxes for Region Four.
Speaking with media operatives outside of the ACCC venue on Monday, the PPP Commissioner was also critical of the utilisation of the work hours in the day and the circumventing of a Commission decision to not stop opening ballot boxes at 17:00h each day.
He cited as an example the fact that at 18:00h on Monday, eight of the 10 recounting stations had already closed off working for the day.
“It is an issue because it affects the efficiency and the output level of this recount process,” according to Gunraj.
“It is disappointing because we are struggling, yesterday (Sunday) we did 60 boxes, today (Monday) we did 54 boxes, every time you see some marginal increase in the number of boxes completed per day which perhaps lend some measure of hope to the process that the process is moving or gaining momentum you see things like this.”
As such, Gunraj has since questioned: “…whether there is a deliberate attempt at slowing down this process rather than expediting it and making it go more efficiently.”
He cited as an example that Monday “one station did two boxes, all day, one morning and one afternoon.”
According to Gunraj, the team involved in completing two lone boxes on Monday had been known to be efficient in the past “so you ask yourself is there a deliberate attempt to slow down this recount exercise and if so, what is the reason for that.”
Acknowledging that the ultimate duration of the exercise will be influenced by the number of working hours utilised per day, the number of stations being used and the time taken per box, Gunraj reminded that the Commission has taken some independent measures to seek to make the process more efficient.
He did note, however, that in “some instances, instead of expediting it, we have seen a deliberate attempt to slow the process down.”
The PPP Commissioner recalled that on Monday there was a controversy at the venue when it was time to open more ballot boxes to be recounted.
According to Gunraj, party agents—whom he did not identify—refused to turn over the keys to have the containers opened in order to access the ballot boxes in order to have the count continue.
He was unable to say why the Secretariat—headed by Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield—did not opt to have the chains forcibly cut, as had obtained on a previous occasion.
According to Gunraj, he is in receipt of reports of party agents deliberately stalling the recount process ahead of the identified 17:00h.
Gunraj has since disclosed an intention to table a specific motion to the Commission, meant to address the matter of optimum use of time during the recount exercise, including extending the hours in the working day.
At the end of day 13, the recount exercise had completed an additional 54 boxes, bringing the total amount of boxes recounted across the country to 642 of the 2339 boxes across the ten regions.
Additionally, the exercise completed the recount exercise for Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) and has since moved on to begin recounting the votes cast in Region Six, completing three boxes for the day.
GECOM Public Relations Officer (PRO), Yolanda Ward also confirmed that two of the ballot boxes were found to have had their Official List of Electors sealed in the wrong boxes—each other’s.
As such, a decision has since been taken by the Commission to summons the two Presiding Officers that would have been in charge of those Polling Stations on Elections Day, in order to ascertain what led to the discrepancy.