Mingo’s fraudulent declarations stand until replaced with recount results – GECOM

…Commission meets today to extend 25-day timeline

The fraudulent declarations that were proclaimed for Region Four by Clairmont Mingo on March 13, at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) headquarters stand on the Commission’s record until they are replaced by results from the National Recount exercise currently underway at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.

The results were never vitiated as fraud since the court had ruled on the procedures used which means that according to the Commission’s records, those results are not fraudulent and would have to be replaced. However, now that the recount has started, the Statements of Recount (SoRs) are showing a vastly different figure than those which were announced by Mingo.

GECOM’s Public Relations Officer (PRO) Yolanda Ward provided the clarification for members of the media on Monday as numerous public analyses being done on the figures presented by Mingo revealed them as heavily inflated in favour of the incumbent.
“The decision of the Commission is that those declaration remain in place until they are replaced by a count,” she told the media.
According to the PRO, this would mean that at the completion of the tabulation of Region One (Barima-Waini), there would be a declaration of that result after which it would “take the place of what currently exists.”
Ward told media operatives “until such time that when the declarations of these counts by the respective regions are completed then is when those declarations will be set aside.”
She told media operatives that when the recount process is completed with results for each of the regions, at that time the Commission would direct the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) to prepare a report for the final declaration of results of the March 2 General and Regional Elections.
Ward reminded that the declarations for the entire country which includes those delivered by Mingo had been set in abeyance, pending the results of the recount process.
She insisted that for each region, at the end of the recount exercise, “there will be a declaration that will be generated”
The PRO was unable to say who would be doing the declarations for the regions for the recount and that this would have to be pronounced on by the Commission.
Additionally, the GECOM PRO told media operatives that following a meeting of the Commission and six of the small parties that contested the elections to listen to their concerns, a decision was taken to meet today in order to revise the initial 25-day deadline that had been set by the Commission to complete the National Recount exercise.
According to Ward, the primary concerns of the newer parties with regard the duration of the exercise “was not being able to meet the 25-day timeline and to understand from the Commission what is the plan to really ensure that that timeline is revisited and how soon that they can advise on what’s the approach that will be taken to either accelerate the process to meet that timeline or whether they would be an extension.”
As such, the GECOM PRO disclosed that the meeting did not close on a definitive position since the Commission will be meeting today to discuss the matter.
With regards to the request for a meeting with the Commission by the coalition A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC), Ward told reporters that the GECOM Chairperson, Retired Justice Claudette Singh asked that their concerns be listed in writing.