– Institute urges GECOM to consider proposed plan and pledges technical and logistic support
Dear Editor,
On April 8, 2020, it was reported that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) proposed a national recount plan that would take 155 days to be completed. The proposed plan is not the most efficient approach to the recount exercise, and thus requires a significant amount of time. We believe the plan that we are proposing is a more efficient way to undertake the national recount. The need for a more efficient plan is further underscored by the fact that the future of the nation has been hanging in the balance since March 2, 2020, and every effort to complete the tabulation process in an open, transparent, and credible manner must be considered.
Against this background, the Guyana Budget Policy Institute is proposing a plan that can deliver an open, transparent and credible completion of a national recount of votes in all the regions in roughly 12 days. Based on the institute’s plan, it will take on average 1 hour and 5 minutes to recount each ballot box.
Further, for each 12-hour shift, a maximum of 3 hours can be used for administration (e.g. lunch breaks, shift change, etc.) and 9 hours of actual recounting of the ballots. The institute’s plan is practical and involves the participation of all stakeholders to ensure the process and resulting declarations are credible. The institute stands ready to provide GECOM with technical and logistical support necessary to implement this plan or any other similar plan that would deliver a credible recount in a similar time frame.
The institute sincerely hopes that GECOM would consider this plan, even its concept, to ensure that a credible recount exercise can be completed in the shortest possible time. This is critical not only to complete the 2020 general and regional elections credibly and to install the next legitimate government, but to ensure that a legitimate government can access much-needed resources to deal with the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 virus, retain Guyana’s credibility on the international stage, and continue with the non-partisan business of national development.
Highlights of the plan
– The national recount will be completed in roughly 12 days
– The process will not stop once it starts
– The process will not require any GECOM staff to work for more than 12 hours at a time
– The process provides for added oversight by including live streaming of the recounting activities
– No single GECOM staff will have a monopoly over any aspect of the recount process
– The process includes the participation of political party agents, international and local observers.
– The process considers social-distancing requirements.
– The process would not require any significant additional resources, but relies on GECOM’s full-time staff
Key details of the proposed national recount plan
The institute’s plan is based on the following conditions:
1. The recount will be for all ten administrative regions,
2. The recounting process will NOT stop until it is completed once it commences.
3. There will be more than 1 recounting team for each region
4. There will be a 12-hour shift schedule for each team.
5. The recounting exercise will commence at the same time for all the regions and NOT one after the other.
6. A team comprises of the following people:
a. 2 GECOM staff (1 Presiding Officer and 1 Clerk)
b. At least 1 agent per political party
c. At least 1 international observer from among the OAS, E.U. Commonwealth, Carter Center, CARICOM, etc.
d. At least 1 local observer from among the GCCI, PSC, AMCHAM, Bar Association, etc.
7. It takes at most 20 seconds to validate each ballot (this is a very liberal estimate since the actual time taken on elections night was significantly less). This involves the Presiding Officer calling out the vote on each ballot and showing it to all stakeholders for validation. The 20 seconds also include 5 seconds that is the average per ballot for other types of administrative processes that can slow the process, e.g. lunch break, short breaks, changing over to another shift, etc.
8. The ballots which are currently stored in the ballot boxes are already sorted which saves a lot of time in the recount process.
Based on these conditions, the table below shows the valid votes for each Region based on existing GECOM declarations except for Region 4 and 7. The valid votes for these two regions are based on their preliminary results in the public domain. The table also shows the number of days (24 work hours) that are required to recount the votes for each region. Further, it shows the number of teams that are required to work on a 12-hour rotation shift system, and the total number of teams for each region to complete the recount process.
For example, for Region 3 which has 73,432 valid votes, 6 teams are required to work on a 12-hour shift rotation system, 2 teams at a time, to complete the recount process in 8 days. Let’s call the six teams 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, 3E, and 3F. Teams 3A and 3B will start the recount and work for 12 hours. Teams 3C and 3D will relieve Teams 3A and 3B (so that these persons can get rest) and continue the recount for another 12 hours. Teams 3E and 3F will relieve Teams 3C and 3D (so that these persons can also get rest) and continue the process for the next 12 hours. And finally, Teams 3A and 3B (after resting for 24 hours) will relieve Teams 3E and 3F and continue the process for the next 12 hours, and the process continues like this until all the ballots are recounted.
Region 4, because of the size, requires a total of 12 teams to complete the recount exercise in 12 days. The ballots for Region 4 would be split into four main groups (South Georgetown, North Georgetown, East Bank, and East Coast). Each group will have 3 teams assigned to it (Teams 4A, 4B, and 4C). Let’s take, for example, the South Georgetown group, Team 4A will start the recounting process and work for 12 hours, Team 4B will relieve Team 4A and continue for 12 hours, and Team 4C will relieve Team 4B and continue for 12 hours, and the process continues. This shift system allows each team to work for 12 hours and rest for 24 hours without interrupting the process. What is more importan, is that while the recount is happening for South Georgetown, it is also happening simultaneously for all the other groups in Region 4.
For those Regions that require only 2 teams, each team will work for 12 hours and rest for 12 hours. This process will go on for no more than 6 days among these regions. After one week (7 days), 7 of the 10 regions will be fully recounted. After roughly 12 days all 10 regions will be fully recounted, at which point GECOM will have all the regional declarations to make an official and credible national declaration within 24 hours.
