There should be public declarations of election results at the sub-district and district level before SOPs are sent to Gecom

Dear Editor,

On Saturday, January 28, I attended a GHRA/Face the Future sponsored conference at the Marion Academy on electoral reform, where I participated in two workshops. Citizens from all the regions expressed disgust at the long time it took Gecom to declare the results of the 2011 elections. The common cry was if Jamaica with over a million voters, and India with over half a billion voters can have their results declared the same night, why can’t we with less than half a million voters do the same too.

It was argued that the counting of votes and the preparation of Statement of Polls (SOPs) are completed within two hours of the close of poll, and that there was no reason why the results should not be declared. It was pointed out that the Presiding Officer (PO) was required by law to post a copy of the SOP outside the polling station. So all SOPs are posted at a public place but they are not nationally known, and Gecom compounds the matter by taking days to tally the SOPs.

Citizens felt that in order to prevent Gecom from taking nearly a week to declare the official results, the Deputy Returning Officers (DRO) and the Returning Officers (RO) must also make public declarations of the results of their respective sub-districts and districts before the SOPs are sent to Gecom for a final count.

This would mean that by the time Gecom gets all the SOPs from all the districts, the results of each polling station, sub-district, and district would be known nationally. We would all know the preliminary results. Such a situation would allow any citizen to tabulate the national results or follow Gecom’s computation. It would also remove all the mistrust, suspicions, and tensions that are created when Gecom takes days to compute and declare the official results.

It was recognized that disseminating the results to the nation would not be possible with only one radio station that is government controlled. Citizens want private radio stations in each region and IT capability to have POs, DROs, and ROs send their results simultaneously to Gecom, political parties, observers, media houses, law enforcement, and civil society.

When the PO sends results to the DRO, the same results are simultaneously sent to the all the named agencies. The same goes for the DRO and the RO. This would rule out any possibility of fudging the numbers at any level, as many agencies would have all received the same data at the same time.

The law would of course have to be enacted to facilitate these proposals, but with the APNU and AFC controlling parliament that should not be a problem. Of course, I am aware that the APNU wants a completely new elections commission in form and content. These proposals must be included in such electoral reforms.

Yours faithfully,
Malcolm Harripaul