ACDA: Recount results cannot be validated

THE African Cultural and Development Association (ACDA) has pointed out that the national recount, riddled with irregularities, puts the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) in the same position it was previously in when it could not make a final pronouncement on the elections due to a lack of transparency.

In a release to the media on Tuesday, ACDA stated that the high number of missing documents realised during the recount has brought into question the credibility of the elections and GECOM, holding the responsibility to conduct said elections, cannot declare results it cannot verify. “The Guyana Elections Commission has had valuable assets stolen from it that prevents it from using the information from the recount to pronounce differently on the elections than it did earlier,” ACDA stated, adding:

“The recent discoveries revealed that documents that can confirm the will of the Guyanese electors are missing from the official repositories of GECOM, clearly suggesting that the apparent illegality was committed at source with the intention to hide the misconduct. Unless those documents become available, ACDA takes the position that the information from the recount is less credible than the information provided from the first count.”

The People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) has argued that every election will produce margins of error and the ones discovered by the coalition are minimal. However, the APNU+AFC contends that there are “clearly linked” patterns amongst the irregularities which invalidated votes cast for the party. It is also steadfast in the position that fraudulent votes cannot be counted and that GECOM has the responsibility to deliver credible results to the electorate.

The last recital of the Order provides that the conduct of the recount process is for the purpose of “…the reconciliation of the ballots issued with the ballots cast, destroyed, spoiled, stamped, and as deemed necessary, their counterfoils/ stubs; authenticity of the ballots and the number of voters listed and crossed out as having voted; the number of votes cast without ID cards; the number of proxies issued and the number utilised; statistical anomalies; occurrences recorded in the Poll Book”.

ACDA has declared that it was the first organisation to support the decision of the President and the Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo, to have a recount of the votes and it also requested that the recount be done in chronological order in all 10 Districts.

ACDA said that it did so with the belief that the recount would help to accurately determine the results of the March 2, 2020 elections but the loss of “valuable data” highlighted during the recount exercise, makes it impossible for GECOM to ascertain, in totality, the will of the Guyanese people.

The Association maintained: “It cannot be that the contents that should be in 41 boxes from polling stations on the East Coast of Demerara and many others from other areas of the country could randomly vanish into thin air. The stealing of such a large quantity of GECOM’s data seem to fit an intentional pattern of deception which was intended to alter the true will of the Guyanese electors. This also calls into question the validity of the votes in the affected areas and the credibility of the information emerging from the recount exercise.” It compared the severity of the loss to that of the loss of bank records and has since called on the commission to shun the information from the recount if it cannot validate all the results.