With the tabulation of the recounted ballots from the March 2nd general elections drawing to an end, by the end of yesterday the opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) had a lead of 16,371 votes over the incumbent APNU+AFC coalition.
Following the tabulation of an additional 90 General Statements of Recount (SORs) the PPP/C more than doubled its lead from the day before. With just 186 boxes left to be tabulated, the PPP/C has secured 210,310 votes compared with 193,939 votes secured by the APNU+AFC, a difference of 16,371.
At the end of Day 31 of the recount a total of 2,153 or 92% of General SORs and 2,133 Regional SORs had been tabulated.
This included the complete tabulation of nine of the 10 electoral districts, where the incumbent has once again won control of electoral districts Seven, Eight and Ten, while the main opposition secured the Regional Democratic Councils of electoral districts One, Two, Three, Five, Six and Nine.
Additionally, with all 12 workstations focused on the counting of ballots cast in District Four, a total of 76 boxes were completed yesterday for the lower East Coast. There is a total of 167 boxes left to be recounted from today.
Notably as the count moved along yesterday, a new phrase was been introduced into the lexicon surrounding the polls: “votes not validated.”
The phrase has been included in the Observation Report for approximately 21 boxes originating from stations along the East Coast of Demerara, from Vryheid’s Lust to La Bonne Intention (LBI).
These boxes, according to elections agents from three contesting parties, were missing at least one or more of the following: an Official List of Electors (OLE), six-digit stamps, the Presiding Officer’s Seal and used ballot box seals. In fact, for several the only items found in the ballot box were ballots.
While APNU+AFC campaign Co-Chairman Joseph Harmon has argued that these votes could not be considered valid, PPP/C counting agent Anil Nandlall told reporters that he had been assured that the missing items amounted to no more than a “procedural error.”
“[They] somehow forgot their training so you have boxes with ballots only,” Harmon said, arguing that it is going to be a challenge for the commission to come to a definitive position where these votes are concerned as persons cannot claim that those were valid votes.
Nandlall in turn contended that the Deputy Returning Officers (DRO) of that particular area uplifted these items from the various Presiding Officers and either deliberately or unintentionally disregarded the directions from the Chief Election Officer (CEO) by taking everything but the ballots to the Returning Officer (RO).
According to Nandlall, he had brought this issue to the attention of District Four RO Clairmont Mingo, who claimed it was a “procedural error” that would not affect the votes. He also said that he had raised the matter yesterday with CEO Keith Lowenfield, who confirmed that “he has custody of these documents”.
He accused an unnamed member of GECOM’s Secretariat of “mischievously” advising operators of the workstations to insert into the Observation Report language, which suggests that the votes and the recounts were invalidated.
He stressed that a ballot can only be “invalidated” if it is a forgery, carries multiple marks or is unstamped.
“From the beginning of this exercise we have things missing…since Region One you had instances of poll books missing, you had instances of some envelopes not properly sealed…that never affected the validity of the votes,” he reminded.
Notably, however, these instances were the first in which all reconciliation material, such as counter foils, copies of the OLE and the polling place stamp were missing.
GECOM has indicated that it will meet today to decide on the way forward in relation to these ballots. In the interim, the SORs from these boxes have been set aside.
