Recount to take 25 days, Mingo is out, no live streaming, current declaration stands until replaced

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has finally completed its work plan and finalized the constitution of the order for the national recount. What is left now is for GECOM Chair, Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh SC to communicate the Commission’s decisions to CARICOM Secretary General, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, for him to in turn make deliberations on the arrival of the CARICOM high level delegation.

Commissioner Vincent Alexander said that the Chair is very anxious to get the recount over with. He was asked whether the legality of the recount can be challenged in the future, and he saw the need to stress that the recount will be supervised by GECOM, not CARICOM. Alexander explained that the CARICOM terms of reference speak to them providing scrutiny of the process and submitting a report at the end.

Asked whether GECOM would go forward with the recount if the team cannot be here, Alexander said GECOM would have to “go ahead”, but that that is not something that GECOM anticipates. He said that, if the team is not able to make it here, “the idea” would be for them to get high level officials who are already in Guyana to scrutinize the recount.
GECOM has maintained that CARICOM will be there to validate the recount, not to supervise.
Alexander also said that anything can be challenged in a Court, but that the Commission is “of the mind” that Article 162 of the Constitution and section 22 of the Elections Amendment Act provide GECOM with the authority to execute the recount.

During the finalization of the documents, Commissioner Sase Gunraj presented 10 motions to the Commission, which he said were for the purpose of wrapping up the outstanding issues. But his colleague, Commissioner Vincent Alexander said that the motions seemed largely to bring up matters which were already settled by the Commission.

One of the proposals was for a team of auditors, perhaps the Auditor General’s office, to observe the count. Gunraj said that that motion was refused by the Chair, on the condition that the recount already has designated scrutineers.
A motion was moved to invite all local and international observers to witness the recount, and that was passed unanimously, Gunraj said.

“The Chair, today, decided that the recount will start the count of the first four regions simultaneously,” Gunraj said. He added that she decided that region one will have two workstations, region two will have two workstations, region three will have three workstations, and that region four will have three workstations.
Gunraj does not agree with this decision. He said he thinks it would be an untidy situation which will lend itself to confusion.

TABULATION PROCESS
Alexander told reporters that the process will start with a checklist, to mark off all of the contents of each ballot box. He said that the count would then be done like it is done at a polling station, at the close of poll.
Alexander explained that there will be three documents to be submitted at the level of the particular district/region, for each ballot box. These are the statement of recount, the checklist, and a form to note any anomalies identified during the routine checks of each ballot box.

Alexander said that if there are any issues arising during the process, there is an established hierarchy to handle those, starting with supervisor, to CEO, to the Commission. He said that if it gets to the Commission, in some matters, the Commission will have to treat those matters with urgency, instead of waiting for the end of the process.
Gunraj was not in agreement with the Chair’s decision to ground the procedure in aspects of the Representation of the People Act which speak to the procedures to be undertaken at the close of poll.
Gunraj is of the view that the procedure should be grounded in sections of the Act which speak directly to a resolution for a recount. He listed sections 84(6-11), 87, 89(1) and 90.

In his view, the Chair’s decision injects unnecessary steps into the process. He also expressed the position that a court would be likely to consider these distinctions in an elections petition.

RECOUNT TO TAKE 25 DAYS, SUBJECT TO REVIEW
Commissioners said that the Chair said the recount would take 25 days, but that she said it would be subject to review, pending the outcome of the first day.
Gunraj said he posed that the recount should take 14 days, arguing that 25 days would be an unreasonable duration to make the public wait.

Asked how he arrived at that figure, Gunraj explained that the recount could take way less than 25 days to be completed if GECOM adjusts some of the parameters, such as the number of hours working per day.
This specific matter was already decided on by GECOM, that the recount would go on for 10 hours a day. But Gunraj attempted to reinvigorate the matter, arguing that he is impatient and wants to see the recount done with swiftly.

CHAIR SAYS NO LIVE-STREAMING
His proposal to stream the recount live on television and social media was rejected by the Chair.
Commissioner Alexander cited section 90 of the Representation of the People Act, which speaks to the secrecy of the count, as grounds to refuse the live stream.

That section states that “Every person attending at the count of votes shall maintain and not communicate any information obtained at the count as to the list of candidates for which any vote has been given.”
Gunraj reported that the Chair had objections to having the officials involved in the recount being video-streamed to the public, but Gunraj said that GECOM should have nothing to hide.
Though the Chair rejected the live stream, she decided that there will be periodic broadcasts of the progress of the recount.

MINGO IS OUT
Gunraj moved a motion to have all of the staff involved in the activities leading to the controversial region four counts, which drew legal proceedings and allegations of fraud, be removed from active participation in the process, including controversial region four returning officer, Clairmont Mingo.

The Chair reportedly did not accede to this, and said that the Chief Elections Officer has the entitlement to appoint staff.
She said, according to Gunraj, that the recount will be transparent as it will be done under observation. Gunraj said that her position was tantamount to voting against the motion.
However, the Chair said it would be best for Mingo to be excluded from the count.

CURRENT DECLARATIONS STAND UNTIL THEY ARE REPLACED
There has been a push to set aside the current declarations held by GECOM. However, the Chair refused to do so, on the grounds that there is nothing to replace them. She reportedly posited that the declarations will be nullified when the recount provides new declarations.