In its final report on the March 2nd elections here, the European Union Elec-tion Observer Mission (EU EOM) has said that the integrity of the entire electoral process was “seriously compromised” by the non-transparent tabulation of results in Region Four, for which it blamed senior Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) officials.
“Voting, counting and the tabulation of results in nine of Guyana’s ten regions were generally well managed,” the EU EOM said in the report, which was submitted to GECOM Chairperson Justice Claudette Singh at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre yesterday. “However, the integrity of the entire electoral process was seriously compromised by the non-transparent and non-credible tabulation of results in the largest and decisive Region 4 by senior Guyana Elec-tions Commission officials, acting in blatant violation of the law and High Court orders issued in this regard,” it added.
The controversy over the count has resulted in the ongoing national recount, which is expected to be concluded this weekend, ahead of a final declaration of the results.
The EU mission had fielded 55 observers from 25 EU member states and Norway on election day itself and a core team was able to observe and report on all aspects of the election process until 20 March 2020 when, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was repatriated to Europe.
The EU EOM report highlighted issues that were ventilated over a number of past elections. Noting that the March 2 general and regional elections took place in a deeply polarised environment, it highlighted that legal uncertainty, unregulated political finance, biased state media and lack of transparency in the administration of elections characterised the pre-election context. However, it said that overall the elections were competitive and contestants could campaign freely.
The report said that voting on March 2 was well managed and largely peaceful. “Polling procedures were properly followed, despite the inconsistent application of some procedural safeguards. The secrecy of the vote was ensured in all polling stations observed, allowing voters to exercise their franchise freely. Counting was conducted in a transparent manner, but reconciliation procedures were not always followed, leading to some minor difficulties in the preparation of results protocols. Well prepared agents of the two main contenders in almost all polling stations contributed to transparency,” it said.
However, the report noted that in the absence of clear, written instructions from GECOM, the mission found inconsistencies in the transmission of results from polling stations to the tabulation centres at the regional level. “A significant number of envelopes containing the SOPs [statements of poll] and sensitive election material were not properly sealed or, in some cases, were unsealed by Deputy Returning Officers (DROs) for verification before being handed over to the ROs. However, the fact that both major parties had access to copies of the SOPs from almost all polling stations mitigated the risk of any tampering with sensitive material to go unnoticed,” it said.
The report can be accessed at www.eueomguyana.eu.
‘Commission abdicated duty’
The report added that after a transparent, largely uncontested tabulation was completed in most regions, “the process abruptly derailed into chaos and confusion amidst obstruction tactics by election officials” in Region Four.
“On 5 March, the Returning Officer (RO) [Clairmont Mingo] declared results without having tabulated them in the presence of party agents and observers as required by law,” the report noted. It said that an emergency meeting of GECOM’s board ended inconclusively, displaying a broken commission unable to control unfolding events. “By failing to act decisively, GECOM abdicated its constitutional duty to take all actions necessary to ensure compliance with the law and oversee a proper tabulation process,” it said.
The report said that after these results were annulled by the Chief Justice as unlawful, “GECOM still allowed the same RO to rush through the rest of the tabulation without any transparency in blatant violation of the law and explicit court orders, and to make a second declaration of unverified results on 13 March.”
The EU mission highlighted that the results declared by Mingo on March 13 are not credible. “These results gave APNU+AFC and PPP/C 136,057 and 77,231 votes respectively for the general elections in Region 4, enough for the ruling coalition to overcome the opposition’s advantage in the other regions and take the lead nationally. Supported by the online publication of almost all Region 4 polling station results protocols, PPP/C’s parallel tabulation suggested the opposite outcome. It gave the ruling coalition and the opposition 114,416 and 80,150 votes, respectively, in the region, thus placing PPP/C ahead nationally,” the report said.
In this light, the EU mission recommended the adoption of clear written procedures for the transmission and tabulation of election results, notably to ensure consistency of the process in all regions, adequate traceability of handed over electoral documents, and possibility for all authorised stakeholders to examine SOPs as required by law.
It also recommended that the obligation to accompany any declaration of results by simultaneous publication of detailed polling station results and digital copies of all SOPs should be incorporated into law. In addition to the number of valid votes cast for each candidates’ list, these detailed results should also include all elements of electoral accounting to allow control of their coherence, such as number of registered voters, voters who voted, rejected ballots, spoiled ballots, etc., the report said.
Dysfunctional
Meanwhile, the EU EOM said that with confidence in GECOM already undermined by limited inclusiveness and transparency, post-election developments “exposed a dysfunctional commission unable to control its own secretariat.”
The report highlighted that the commission’s deliberations, decisions, instructions and essential electoral data were not accessible to the public.
“The lack of institutional engagement with election stakeholders contributed to most political parties being left out and the general public being underinformed,” the report said.
It also highlighted major issues regarding the composition of GECOM.
“Introduced to assuage discontent ahead of the 1992 elections, the bipartisan composition of the commission has resulted in excessive polarisation, affecting GECOM’s ability to function as a collegiate body, and at times to function at all. Overt partisanship and mistrust among commissioners have placed the chairperson in the untenable position to frequently defer decisions in search of improbable common ground or act as tiebreaker – which highlights the fundamental importance of ensuring the independence of the chairperson. GECOM’s inability to reach timely decisions has given its secretariat excessive discretion over the administration of the elections. Besides, this composition still reflects the political spectrum of 1992, leaving out other political parties as well as other components of the Guyanese society,” the report said.
The report said that by failing to take decisive action as the electoral process derailed into chaos and illegality, GECOM abdicated its constitutional duty to take all actions necessary to ensure compliance with the law by any of its officials, despite unequivocal powers to remove and exercise disciplinary control over them.
Against this backdrop, the EU EOM recommended a national consultation process to overhaul the composition and functioning of GECOM, notably to ensure a more inclusive representation of the various components of the Guyanese society and political spectrum.
