Herman DeSouza, elections officer for the recent the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) elections, yesterday defended the process, saying all the rules were followed and any disgruntled parties could seek redress.
In a telephone interview, DeSouza told Stabroek News that he would have confirmed and reconfirmed the figures received from the outlying districts before arriving at a final result.
He further stated that the members of the Change Team that challenged incumbent Patrick Yarde and his group for seats on the GPSU’s executive council are free to challenge the figures presented against the ones they would have been fed by their colleagues out of town, and the statements of poll posted at the GPSU’s headquarters. He also noted that the team would have been taking notes all along, and so should easily be able to substantiate the numbers.
The GPSU on Tuesday afternoon, in a press release, released a scanned copy of the stamped executive council elections results, listing Yarde’s name first with 1,024 votes, while his lone challenger Gregory Gaspar followed with 842 votes. The release was accompanied by a cover letter bearing DeSouza’s signature.
Gaspar and his supporters said on Tuesday evening that they were still awaiting a formal declaration despite their concerns about the integrity of the process.
Among their concerns was the issue of only a select number of statements of poll being displayed at the GPSU headquarters. DeSouza yesterday said that in keeping with the rules of the union, the statements were posted at the locations where they would have been counted.
Rule 30 (e) iv of the union’s rulebook states that the Returning Officer for each district is responsible for counting the ballots cast in said district and that he/she should, after declaring the results of the ballots cast at that district, submit a written declaration, together with those ballots to the elections officer.
Furthermore, DeSouza stated that he was advised by a Guyana Elections Commission officer that candidates should not be in the building during the process, but said he took it upon himself to allow two candidates and two observers to remain. This decision, however, he said resulted in disruption of the process for some amount of time.
But Rule 30 (e) iv also states that the counting of ballots should take place “on the same day as soon as practicable after the close of poll in the presence of the candidates, their representatives and members of the Union present.”
Regarding whether an announcement of the official results would be made, DeSouza informed that the next step is for correspondence to be sent directly to the individuals indicating that they were successful in securing positions on the executive council. Following this, those elected will gather at the Biennial Delegates Conference, where they will be officially installed.
The elections have been marred by conflict over discrepancies in the process, which had seen the police being called in multiple times during the tallying.
Unofficial results which were posted on the notice board by the Elections Officer on Saturday night showed that Gaspar was in the lead with 542 votes, while Yarde was at 155 votes from seven ballot boxes that were so far counted.
In a May Day statement that was issued on Monday, Yarde, who has been at the helm of the union for over two decades, signalled that there was interference in the election process.
The statement claimed that the interference saw the disruption of the counting of votes and undermining the credibility of the election process.
Meanwhile, the union is still set to attend court on May 10 to answer to an action alleging that the executive had failed to properly manage the union in accordance with its rules.
The action has called for the Yarde-led council to be suspended until it could produce the Treasurer’s reports and/or the Auditor General’s reports for 2004 to 2017.
