GECOM’S role in declaring the winner should be a mere formality

Dear Editor,

The way the law has been setup since 1992 (with the counting of ballots at place of poll) has made the role of GECOM in the declaration of the winner a mere formality.
Consider these steps:

(1) At close of polling, ballots are counted at the polling station, supervised by Presiding Officer, assisted by counting agents, and witnessed by party agents. The votes earned by parties are recorded on Statements of Poll (SOPs). SOPs are officially stamped, signed by several officials and copies are given to party agents. Copies are forwarded to Returning Officers of each district. One copy is posted outside every polling station.

(2) Returning Officers’ job (one for each of 10-districts) is to tabulate the numbers in columns for all the SOPs in his district – and then forward those numbers to Election HQs.
(3) Elections HQs receive the numbers from each of 10-districts, tabulate them in columns (one column for each party) – and then announce the winners.

It is a very simple process. No oversimplification is intended here. Counting, recording on SOPs and transmission of the numbers to ROs, and from ROs to HQs – all of these processes cannot take more than 3-4 hours. And, therefore the law should require that the winner must be declared by midnight on the day of the elections.
There is no room for breakdowns. Modern technology – computers, I-phones, regular telephones – can guarantee the transmission of numbers of votes won by each party before midnight on polling day.

Most important of all. By midnight on the day of polling, the parties’ HQs already know the votes won by all parties – they had collected copies of SOPs from their agents and did their own tabulations. And, they sit and wait for the official declaration from GECOM.

Gecom’s declaration is a mere a formality.
So, what has broken down to cause Guyana not to know the results of the election, now 7-weeks after the election? GECOM is the problem. It is not a bona fide Electoral Commission. All Guyanese can identify the one specific area where the system broke down. RO Clarimont Mingo refused to tabulate the SOPs. He was determined to sabotage the tabulation process. Mingo’s malfeasance in itself, though a felony fraud, is in itself not so bad as GECOM’s refusal to replace him with another officer who would have completed the tabulation of SOPs and declare the R4 results within a reasonable time slot.

What is also awful is that the ruling party the PNC (or APNU) has refused to be truthful about what the SOPs in their possession say. PNC is complicit in the electoral fraud. And, it is clear to all Guyanese – and indeed to the 5-teams of International Observers that GECOM is itself a criminal agency of the State.

Mike Persaud