…says GECOM ready to conduct recount once order gazetted
It has now been two months since the General and Regional Elections were held and a credible winner is yet to be declared. The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is currently finetuning the technicalities of a recount and is hopeful of having the recount order gazetted by Monday.
GECOM PRO Yolanda Ward
This was according to GECOM Public Relations Officer Yolanda Ward, who was interviewed following a meeting and tour with stakeholders on Saturday at the recount venue – Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC).
She related that following the meeting on Saturday, the draft recount order will be revisited and eventually published.
“What we have is a draft order. That order, based on the meeting this afternoon now that the Caricom team is on the ground, is intended to be revisited to focus on the start date for the exercise. And any other minor adjustments that will be made based on the deliberations of the Commission from this morning’s exercise,” she said.
One of the counting stations that will be used for the recount
“So, the outcome of today’s meeting is to really focus on the start date for the exercise. So that the operational things can commence. Of course, once the start date is announced it means that we will definitely endeavour to have the order gazetted by Monday. Because it cannot commence without a gazette order.”
The meeting allowed party agents and Caribbean Community observers to become familiar with the Arthur Chung Conference Centre. Also, Ward explained that a suggestion was made to have copies of all Statements Of Poll (SoPs) made available to agents at the work stations to compare during the recount. Another issue is the way in which the ballot boxes will be counted.
“There are 10 work stations that will be in operation. And the proposal was to have two for Region One, two for Region Two, three for Region Three and another three for Region Four. So those would operate simultaneously.”
“What the parties had recommended was that doing the count like that, it should be done in numerical order. They anticipate it might cause confusion with four containers being simultaneously opened.”
Otherwise, Ward was confident that on an operational level, GECOM was ready to conduct the recount. She explained that all they are waiting on now is the order for the recount to be published in the Guyana Gazette.
GECOM took a significant step closer to announcing a date for the recount of the March 2 polls, with the arrival of a special team of scrutineers fielded by the Caribbean Community (Caricom).
The team landed at the Eugene F Correia International Airport shortly after 15:00h on Friday — one hour later than their originally scheduled arrival time — and is led by Senior Lecturer in the Department of Government at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Cynthia Barrow-Giles.
The three-member team also comprises Commissioner of the Antigua and Barbuda Electoral Commission, John Jarvis and Deputy Supervisor of Elections of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Sylvester King.
GECOM’s Secretariat on Thursday conducted a simulation/training exercise involving the staff to be used — inclusive of Returning Officers — at the ACCC for the recount. Some 80 personnel had taken part in the one-day exercise.
While only 40 persons from GECOM would be allowed in the vicinity of the counting stations at any given time, it is the intention of the Commission to have the staff work on rotating days hence the need to train 80 persons for the exercise.
