Less than two hours after the restart of the tabulation of votes cast in Region Four the process was once again suspended just after midday so that the Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission, Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh could read the written ruling of Chief Justice (CJ) Roxane George delivered yesterday.
Speaking with media outside the Region Four Counting Office, opposition-appointed Commissioner Sase Gunraj explained that the region Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo has attempted to utilize data from a “spreadsheet” generated last week during the tabulation process.
According to Gunraj this is a clear violation of the CJ’s order.
Private sector observer Kit Nascimento said that this attempt was objected to by all present and that the Chair has suspended the process until such time as she has read the written judgment of the court and satisfied herself as to the process.
Yesterday the CJ ruled the declaration of results in the Region null, void and of no effect, the Chief Justice also made it clear that there therefore could be no declaration of any final results of the elections, until the declaration of the vote count for electoral district four is properly done.
Though the Chief Justice found the declaration to be unlawful, she made it clear that it is within the ambit of GECOM alone, to decide whether it will restart the process of tabulating and presenting the votes, or whether it will continue from where it had previously left off.
Also, Justice George-Wiltshire made it clear that it was for the RO, who alone has the statutory duty, to decide on the manner and method to be used for validating the vote count, and no one else.
Against this background the judge pointed out that observers and party agents alike have absolutely no say, though she said that the RO must act in a transparent, reasonable manner.
While the verification process of the tabulation of votes for district four had commenced earlier, last Thursday, it was halted with the understanding that it would be resumed later. However, following a commotion which erupted at GECOM’s command centre between local party observers on both the government and opposition sides, Mingo began announcing the results for district four.
His attempts were, however, drowned out by loud shouting from members of the opposition and other political parties. It was after this that GECOM’s Public Relations Officer Yolanda Ward disseminated the results to the media via WhatsApp.
Timeline:
The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) this morning allowed one representative per party or observer group for the verification of Region 4 elections results by Returning Officer (RO) Clairmont Mingo.
Thirty minutes after the counting of Region Four is set to continue it remains unclear what decision RO Clairmont Mingo has made.
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The process has now been suspended.
