Returning Officers to have final results by midday today – GECOM CEO

Elections 2020

Following Monday’s polling, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is expected to have results from the Returning Officers (ROs) of votes in each of the 10 administrative regions in Guyana by midday today.

This is according to Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield, at a press conference on Monday evening to update the public.
Asked about a timeframe for final results, Lowenfield said he will not commit to a specific date and time.
“…It is the Commission’s desire to have final declaration of results in the earliest possible time… [But] as the process moves, I’m strongly assuming by [today] midday all the ROs would have had their declarations in the respective districts,” he stated.
The CEO explained at the time that counting was taking place at various Polling Stations and ROs were expected to start declaring results from their districts (Regions) by 22:00h.
Prior to that, however, the ballots were counted at each Polling Station after which the Statements of Poll were posted outside the Polling Stations by the Presiding Officers. Those statements from each Polling Station will then be uplifted by the Deputy RO and taken to or forwarded to the RO.
The Returning Officer (RO), after posting the final results of his district, will then pass the statements on to the CEO.
“Our own plan is to ensure that that process commences and concludes as far as practicable this evening. Whether it’s concluded or not this evening, Statements would be received by Returning Officers, who will all commence a public verification process which includes the public display of each Statement in every district and that process will continue until all of the statements for those particular districts are concluded. Once that is completed, the ROs will declare the results in the respective districts… whilst that is happening the Returning Officers will ensure the Statements for the CEO is forwarded and/or escorted to his office,” Lowenfield explained.
In the meantime, GECOM provided updates as information trickled in from the various districts on a secured platform that was established: www.guyanaelections.com
Additionally, periodic updates were also posted to GECOM’s Facebook page.
On the other hand, reflecting on the day’s voting process, both the Chief Elections Officer and the Chairperson of GECOM, (ret’d) Justice Claudette Singh, lauded the process.
“I’m very pleased today. I’ve visited several Polling Stations. Of course, there were long lines but GECOM’s senior officers came forward and assisted. And quickly, the lines disappeared…” the GECOM Chair stated.
She went on to caution the media not to sensationalise reports coming out of the voting process, noting that the country is in a “charged atmosphere”.
“We have to be careful how we go about spreading stories. We must always verify our stories before we publish them… One has to be careful because these things can escalate into mistrust and even violence. So let us avoid those things,” Justice Singh stated.
But even as the GECOM Chair urged verification of issues, the Commission was evasive in responding to queries about several incidents that occurred across the country throughout Monday’s polling day.
Regarding the tense situation at Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara, the CEO said that GECOM is awaiting investigations on the “standoff”. He indicated that while the police are handling the matter, GECOM will look into the cause of the matter until after its agents are done with their tasks of counting ballots.
However, he confirmed the arrest of an individual, who allegedly attempted to vote twice on the East Coast of Demerara. The CEO did not confirm the gender of the individual or the location where the incident occurred. But earlier in the day, information had surfaced that a woman had attempted to vote twice at Mon Repos.
Lowenfield also confirmed reports of a standoff at Sisters’ Village, West Bank Demerara, as well as a build-up of persons at Patentia, also on the West Bank of Demerara.
Another issue which the CEO acknowledged is the displacement of a “handful” of voters. He explained that these persons were captured during the scrapped House-to-House Registration and during the crossing matching exercise, which was done overseas, but their data was unrecognisable due to the poor standard of service provided.
“We tried our best to minimise the quality and so on. But at the end of the day, the quality of prints was so bad that we could not have truthfully identified who some persons were. That led, despite our efforts, to some persons being displaced – a situation that the Commission is not very happy with, notwithstanding that it was just a handful of that category,” he stated without giving an exact figure.
As a result of this, persons would have shown up at their listed Polling Station only to be told that they had to go elsewhere, in some cases in other Regions.
Nevertheless, Lowenfield noted that “corrective actions” were taken by GECOM and arrangements were made to facilitate those persons to vote.