The recounting of all the ballots cast at the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections is expected to get underway sometime today, with Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), where the tabulation process was embroiled in controversy and allegations of fraud, to be the first that will be recounted.
Government-nominated Commissioner Vincent Alexander
This was agreed upon when the independent high-level team fielded by the Caribbean Community (Caricom) met with the seven-member Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on Sunday evening to finalise the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the recounting process.
According to GECOM Commissioners, Sase Gunraj and Vincent Alexander, the regional team made the suggestion that the largest voting district be the first to be recounted since it is also the largest voting district, and will be done when everyone will be “fresh”.
Following the more than three-hour-long meeting on Sunday night, Gunraj, who is an Opposition-nominated Commissioner, explained to reporters that the Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield, provided a framework of how the recounting process will be conducted and the Commission collectively fine-tuned that work plan by making some edits and incorporating suggestions. After the Caricom team joined the meeting just over an hour later, some additional changes were made to finalise the agreement.
Opposition-nominated Commissioner Sase Gunraj
“I think we have a framework with which we can now operate…,” Gunraj asserted.
It was emphasised that the Caricom team is just here for the supervision of the recounting process, which will mirror the normal GECOM recounting process.
Following the declaration of the Region Four results on Friday night, which many of the political parties that contested the March elections alleged was marred with fraud, Caricom Chairperson, Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley intervened and assembled the independent high-level team to supervise the recounting process – which was requested by incumbent President David Granger and agreed to by Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, who is also the Opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) General Secretary.
One of the containers arriving on a truck at GECOM Headquarters on Sunday
The team is being led by former Attorney General and current Foreign Affairs Minister of Dominica, Francine Baron, and includes former Finance Minister of Grenada, Anthony Boatswain; Senior Lecturer in the Department of Government at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Cynthia Barrow-Giles; Chief Electoral Officer of Barbados, Angela Taylor; and Chief Elections Officer of Trinidad and Tobago, Fern Narcis-Scope.
They arrived in Guyana on Saturday evening and were joined by the Caricom Chair, Mia Mottley.
This morning, the Caricom team will accompany the Chief Elections Officers to scout out a location to determine its suitability for the recounts after which the other logistics will be put in place to commence the recount.
In addition, an agreement between the two political leaders who agreed to this process, and Caricom, will also have to be signed for the record.
According to Commissioner Gunraj, he hopes and expects that the recounting process would get underway sometime this afternoon.
“I am hoping that… after lunch [today] we can start. That is just my belief and hope, and that’s taking into consideration what has to be done,” Gunraj posited, adding that the recounting process is expected to run for more than 12 hours per day.
The proposed location for the recount is the Arthur Chung Convention Centre and according to Commissioner Alexander, during today’s site visit, they will be looking for convenience.
He further explained that since there are five members of the regional team, it is anticipated that five ballot boxes would be recounted simultaneously.
“Each will be supervising one ballot box at a time. So once the location can accommodate that, that will help us to get through the exercise as quickly as possible,” Alexander noted.
The Government-nominated Commissioner added that during this simultaneous count, each political party will be allowed a representative to witness the process.
Given that RO Mingo had deemed the counting agents for all the parties “not duly appointed”, it was explained that this recounting process has now superseded the RO’s decision.
Apart from the regional team and GECOM staffers, parties’ representatives and observers, as well as other persons prescribed by the law, will be present during the recount.
Moreover, it was noted that what the ballot boxes contain during this recount process will be the final elections results.
During Sunday night’s meeting, the Caricom and GECOM teams also discussed the use of Statements of Poll (SoPs) during this recounting process and according to Gunraj, a decision was taken not use that form but another document.
“There is no need, as we speak, for the use of physical Statements of Poll in the form that you are accustomed to… We have taken a decision to use a document that has all the hallmarks of a SoP, all the required fields…,” the Opposition-nominated Commissioner noted.
He explained that since there was a total of 2339 Polling Stations, there are not sufficient SoP forms available to facilitate the recounts of all those ballot boxes, hence the use of another document.
Both GECOM Commissioners assured that these materials will be produced and available in time for the commencement of today’s count.
Neither of the two Commissioners could anticipate how long the recounts will last, but noted that there are provisions in the law to extend the 15-day timeline for the declaration of elections results. Tomorrow, Tuesday, March 17, 2020, will be 15 days since Guyanese cast their votes.
