President David Granger (back to camera) meeting with the three- member CARICOM scrutinising team and the GECOM Chair at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre. (Ministry of the presidency photo)
May 19 2020
The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has claimed that there is “deliberate sloth” in the recounting of District Four ballots and suggested that a recently promoted work station supervisor is acting in concert with the incumbent to further slow that process.
They have also called out the Guyana Elections Commission for “preferential treatment” offered to President David Granger during a visit on Sunday to the Arthur Chung Convention Centre (ACCC) where the recount is ongoing.
In a letter yesterday to the GECOM Chair Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh, PPP/C Election Agent Zulficar Mustapha demanded that the Chair assure him and his party that the promotion of Information Technology staffer Enrique Livan was not related to a visit to the tabulation centre by Granger.
Livan has been promoted to station supervisor at workstation 10 which is currently recounting ballots cast in Electoral District Four.
It is alleged that the station had slowed considerably and only processed one box during the morning hours yesterday. The party argued that the recount for District Four has been the slowest for all the districts with 40% of the remaining boxes originating from this district.
District Four which has the largest population has the largest number of ballot boxes, 879. There are three stations assigned to recount these ballots and these stations have processed 161 boxes over the last 13 days. Less than the 178 processed by the three stations recounting boxes from District Three.
In the letter, the opposition party called on the Commission to take steps to bring expediency to the counting of ballots for all districts including District Four. Specifically the party asked that the two new stations to be established today be assigned to recount District Four ballots.
These stations have however been assigned to count Districts Six and Seven.
Additionally the party reminded that the particular staff member who was promoted on Sunday, had been accused of “serious malpractice…during the verification process of District Four results.”
On the evening of March 4, members of the Guyana Police Force had conducted a public interrogation of the staff member at the tabulation centre at the Ashmins building after a party agent claimed they saw him entering data from a “flash drive onto a spreadsheet” outside the scrutiny of party representatives and observers.
Though video of the interrogation was widely shared no charges have ever been brought against the officer and he remains employed with GECOM.
GECOM spokesperson Yolanda Ward while acknowledging that accusations had been levelled against the member of staff explained to the media that Livan and another staff member were promoted after two other members of staff from outlying districts asked to return home.
“The Returning Officer from Region One, Trevor Harris left yesterday to return to Moruca for a week and another staff member from the Charity Office left to go home for three days,” Ward explained.
She also said that the Chair and members of the secretariat did not engage in a “secret meeting” with President Granger when he visited the site on Sunday.
The PPP in their letter requested that the Chair disclose the nature of the “confidential” discussions she had with the President in the absence of the six other members of the Commission. They also asked to be told the nature of Granger’s discussion with the scrutinizing team from the Caribbean Community.
According to Ward, the President sought only to express his gratitude to CARICOM and to communicate his satisfaction with the work GECOM was doing.
“It was a meeting that said to us that he is grateful for the progress we’ve made in the conduct of this exercise and expressed his expectation of the process concluding in an expeditious manner,” she shared, adding that when meeting with the CARICOM delegation he expressed the same sentiments.
Addressing the party’s claim of preferential treatment, government-nominated Commissioner Vincent Alexander said the letter was an example of “unnecessary politicking and acts of absurdity” which have come to characterize Guyana.
“Mr Granger whether we like it or not still happens to be the President of the country… one cannot not take cognizance of that fact. Mr Granger’s visit has nothing to do with electioneering period that’s when candidates influence processes. We are trying to conduct a transparent count and I don’t think Granger or Jagdeo or anyone of them regardless of who they meet with can impact that process,” he contended.
According to Alexander, PPP General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo was offered similar considerations when he visited a few days earlier.
