Dear Editor,
As the powers that be fiddle with the bulletproof Election Day processes to score imaginary points, it would behoove us to remember pertinent facts about the 2020 elections and let those guide any/all attempts at reform. Let us examine one issue at a time.
There were no proven attempts made at polling stations to rig the elections via casting votes for persons not present other than the regular proxy votes, however, the APNU+AFC has made allegations (yet to be substantiated) that persons not in the country and/or dead were ‘ticked off’ as voted. This raises the question of future verification of the ‘ticking’. Under the current procedure, the ticking is done by GECOM staff who sit on opposite sides of the room to party polling agents, how then does the polling agent verify whose name is ticked when John Jones is presented? What if a GECOM agent accidentally/ deliberately ticks the wrong name when John Jones is presented? What if there are no party agents present?
Anyone who has worked at a polling station knows that there are ‘rush’ hours when the lines are long and there is no time for cross-checking ticks, when there is a lull, party agents use that time to check/assist/cross-reference with agents of other parties and GECOM staff in efforts to keep the numbers straight and make the final tallying go easier. Polling agents do go on bathroom breaks and miss a voter or a few, and when they return they are informed that Rishi Persaud, etc. voted; a level of trust exists between GECOM staff and Party Poll agents and that is where the practical strength of Guyana’s electoral system resides. To put a ballot into the box requires collusion of at least five GECOM staff members, one police officer, and any party agent present; it is theoretically possible but would take some doing.
Where then does this leave the ‘ticks’? In terms of reform, we must be clear about what constitutes evidence during a recount or audit of the poll, if we determine that a ‘tick’ is evidence, then the physical layout of polling stations has to be changed to allow the party agents to easily ascertain that the tick has been placed correctly by the GECOM staff each time. The course I would suggest is that we only accept ballots and Statements of Poll as evidence in recount/audit and leave the ‘ticks’ as a procedure fraught with human error. I do hope this is informative for those who have not served as GECOM staff or Party Agents on polling days.
Sincerely,
Robin Singh
