Elections recount not essential, cannot go beyond curfew – Nagamootoo

Chairman of the coalition administration’s COVID-19 task force, Moses Nagamootoo, has refused to allow the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to be considered ‘an essential service’ and as such, permission for the recount of the March 2 General and Regional Elections to continue beyond the 18:00h national curfew was not given.

This would mean that under Nagamootoo’s edict, the recount of the ballots cast would last well beyond 43 days.
This is so since 10 counting stations working daily on the recount would be able to get through five and a half boxes with a two-hour allocation for each or 55 boxes in total each day.

This would give 44 days for the recount of the 2339 boxes of ballots cast on March 2, providing that the recount begins at 06:00h each day which is unlikely to occur.
Compounding things further, the COVID1-19 task force chairman has also decided that “all persons who are permitted special entry into Guyana during this period when our air space is closed to in-bound passengers must submit themselves to being quarantined at a government institution for a period of 14 days”.

GECOM Chairperson, Retired Justice Claudette Singh had on Thursday last signalled to the Commissioners that the Caribbean Community (Caricom) Secretary General has been contacted to field a team to Guyana for the recount process.

Singh did inform Commissioners, however, that Caricom had queried the use of technology to aid in the process by having the recount live streamed for the observers.

Additionally, Nagamootoo had also decided that GECOM would have to allow four technical experts of the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre (PHEOC) to conduct a site visit to assess whether distancing arrangements conform to the pandemic guidelines and the published order.

Nagamootoo said he was asked in his capacity as the task force chairman to pronounce on the time at which the daily recount exercise should end; the number of persons who should be safely accommodated at the recount venue at the same time; and required protocols for quarantining persons coming from abroad, and who were invited to be part of the recount process.

Addressing the ‘specific requests’ by the GECOM Chairman, Nagamootoo over the weekend in responding to Justice Singh reminded that “among the gazette menu of measures, we have in place a closure of our air space to incoming international flights, shutdown of our borders, a dusk-to-dawn curfew, protocols for quarantining of persons, guidelines for clustering and social distancing.”

As such, having made a decision that the recount would be done at a public venue, to wit, the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, it should be common sense that as a constitutional agency, GECOM would ascertain whether arrangements for the recount would conform to the Executive Orders.

Justice Singh, in her communication to Commissioners on Friday last, had said she decided there should be no more than 10 workstations for the recount of the ballots cast countrywide during the March 2 General and Regional Elections.

That missive from Justice Singh noted that her decision was “subject to the availability of the requisite equipment and technology to display the ballots”.
The People’s Progressive Party/Civic had proposed 20 work stations, with a duration of 10 days to complete the entire process.

The PPP’s Sase Gunraj, along with fellow Commissioners Bibi Shadick and Robeson Benn, had submitted the proposal to counter the one for a 156-day recount which was previously submitted by GECOM Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield.
Government-aligned Commissioner Vincent Alexander, who had proposed the use of eight counting stations, had told media operatives that if conducted the way he envisages with two hours allocated for the recount of a box, the exercise would last 64 days.

He said if that time was reduced by 30 minutes it would result in the duration of the exercise been 48 days and should one hour be allocated for the recount of each box, then the exercise would last 32 days. There are 2339 ballot boxes.
Media operatives were told on Thursday that the Chairperson had adjourned the meeting with a promise to make a decision on the range of proposals on the table including the 20-workstation proposal by PPP/C Commissioner Gunraj.
Justice Singh, in her communication on Friday, however, did not indicate a duration for the exercise, a date for an official commencement or the amount of time that would be allocated for the recount of each of the ballot boxes.