Dear Editor,
If the events surrounding the conclusion of the 2020 elections were not of such consequence, it would be regarded as a circus with GECOM Chairperson Claudette Singh as the circus director. Unfortunately for all Guyanese, at issue is the very concept of democracy and the future of the country. The Representation of the People Act requires that elections results be statutorily declared within fifteen days of the elections while the Constitution imposes a deadline of four months for the convening of the new Parliament after a dissolution. Justice Singh it has to be assumed has knowledge of these provisions although she seems recklessly totally unconcerned about them and their implication.
By a series of acts of omission and commission, Justice Singh has been compounding her failure to act on March 5 while disgraced Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo concocted a fraudulent declaration to give the APNU+AFC victory in the elections. She has failed to call on Keith Lowenfield, the Chief Election Officer, to produce the Statements of Poll which were submitted to him. Her failure facilitates the perpetration and continuation of the electoral fraud, all with the connivance of the APNU GECOM commissioners.
To stretch out the process even further, Ms. Singh imposed a limit of ten stations for the recount of all the Regions and delegated to the National COVID–19 Committee led by the incomparable Moses Nagamootoo the authority to specify the hours in any day that GECOM could undertake its slow count. Maybe Justice Singh is not aware that forestry workers are deemed “essential services” and that attorneys-at-law made successful representation for such a status. If she does, she clearly does not consider national elections as having an equal claim as forestry workers and attorneys-at-law.
Instead of compensating for her failure to deal with the conspiracy to hand Granger “victory”, Justice Singh seems bent on compounding it by her lack of appreciation of Nagamootoo’s strictures on the work of GECOM, an independent constitutional body. By accepting a limitation of ten hours to her limitation of ten stations, Justice Singh is not only further delaying the process but also creating the opportunities for the alternative goal of the APNU+AFC and their friends – to set aside the entire elections.
It is a sad commentary on Justice Singh that a long delayed declaration now seems to be an acceptable option. So when will GECOM complete the elections process? This is a deceptively tricky question since it is rife with uncertainty. The first task to be completed would be to get the count going, the main elements of which would be:
(1) agreement on the logistics, procedures and the selection of the GECOM personnel for the count; and
(2) the arrangements for the CARICOM team to be identified and arrangements made for them to come to Guyana.
Yesterday Friday completed another week in which GECOM found it difficult to complete the first task and only an optimist can see all these arrangements completed during next week. Then make allowance for another week for the mobilisation of a CARICOM Team willing to be part of this messy task while trying to ensure the fairness of what may still turn out to be a contentious and meaningless count. Assuming this timeframe, it is unlikely then that the actual count will begin until week starting May 11, 2020.
Now for the actual count. Out of the ten hours allowed daily, two hours must be set aside for administration matters and for breaks, leaving a maximum count time of eight hours. There were approximately 450,000 votes each in the General and the Regional elections to be recounted by Justice Singh’s ten stations. Apparently GECOM has not yet considered the recount of the regional elections but logically it is hard to see them saying let us ignore the Regional votes and deal only with those cast in the General Elections. To accept one is to accept the other while to reject one is to reject the other.
But let us assume for projection purposes that the General and the Regional ballot papers would be counted simultaneously. Each station will therefore count an average of 45,000 votes. The process to count the two votes on each ballot paper will involve the opening, display, examination and tabulation which I estimate will take an average of thirty seconds. Under these assumptions, the ten stations will count an average of 9600 votes per day over 47 count and tabulation days.
Thereafter, the sheets – 2,389 in total – will have to be tabulated according to each of the ten electoral district (two days), forwarded to GECOM for preparation of the summary, preparation of a report by the GECOM secretariat (two days), and finally the convening of a meeting of GECOM Commissioners (one day). That is another week.
Assuming a scenario in which there is no break for weekends and holidays, there will be no declaration of a result until the first week in July. If we were to add weekend breaks and holidays, the process will be extended for another three weeks – right up to August! In all this time, Guyanese will have a fraudulent Government, no Parliament and no budget.
My fear Editor, is that this recount is a delaying ploy with the principal characters being Claudette Singh, David Granger and Vincent Alexander. Granger has not committed to accepting the results of the recount while Alexander has already raised questions about its validity. I would not be surprised that this recount if it does take place, is another act, and not the finale, in Claudette Singh’s circus.
Yours faithfully,
Christopher Ram
