GECOM cannot ignore the will of 233,336 Guyanese

After 34 intense and at times dramatic days, the curtains have finally drawn on the national elections recount exercise and based on the preliminary data generated by the exercise, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has emerged the winners of the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections in Guyana.

The final box was counted on Sunday, while the final tabulation was completed just around midday on Monday at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC). The data generated from the 2339 Statements of Recount (SoRs) shows that the PPP/C, whose Presidential Candidate is former Housing Minister Dr Irfaan Ali, received a total of 233,336 votes.
This is 15,416 more votes than their nearest rivals, A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC), which received 217,920 votes. When one calculates using the Hare formula, it means that PPP/C would have secured 33 out of 65 seats in the National Assembly and APNU/AFC would have secured 31.

The Liberty and Justice Party (LJP), which is led by former National Toshaos Council (NTC) Vice Chairman Lenox Shuman, was the third highest-grossing party with 2657 votes. Coming in fourth was A New and United Guyana (ANUG), led by former Speaker of the National Assembly, Senior Counsel Ralph Ramkarran, which received 2313 votes.

Prior to the elections, both LJP and ANUG had entered into an agreement to join their candidate lists with The New Movement (TNM). However, TNM, which is led by Dr Asha Kissoon, only secured 244 votes, the least of any contesting party and well behind Change Guyana (1953), People’s Republican Party (889) and the Citizens Initiative (680).

Between them, LJP, ANUG and TNM secured 5214 votes, which, by using the Hare formula for seat allocations, means they are expected to get one seat. The process is not over, however, as a number of steps have to be completed by GECOM before the final declaration and swearing-in of the next President.

According to the recount order, Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield must tabulate the matrices for the recount in all 10 Regions, prepare and submit a report based on those tabulations to the Commission.
The report has to then be deliberated on by the Commission, a final report pursuant to Section 96 of the Representation of the People Act has to be submitted and a declaration has to be made.

In an interview with the media outside the recount site on Monday, PPP Executive and former Attorney General Anil Nandlall laid out his party’s expectations now that the recount has been completed. According to him, Lowenfield’s role in the process is straightforward.

He noted that the recount order does not provide for the CEO to have any personal, subjective input. “He is simply to summarise the observation report and tabulate, aggregate and total the numbers which would have been tabulated and put on the certificate, constituting the declaration of results for each of the regions,” Nandlall said.

He added that there is no place for the Chief Elections Officer to inject a personal opinion, to offer any recommendation of any sort whatsoever. “His duty and role, in the letter and spirit of the order, is quite mechanical and straightforward. When he presents that report, on or before June 13th, then the Commission will have to deliberate on the report.”
Nandlall posited that in all likelihood, GECOM will check to ensure the numbers and the observation report summary are accurate. Subsequently, he said, a result will be declared based on Lowenfield’s report.

“It’s upon the declaration of that result that the party whose Presidential Candidate received the most votes, will be declared the President and deemed to be the President of Guyana. Having regard to the numbers you are all aware of, the political party and Presidential Candidate that ought to and is expected to be declared, is Dr Irfaan Ali.”