Vote by GECOM Chair to suppress Region Four Statements of Poll is worrying

Dear Editor,

The recent vote by the GECOM Chairperson Ms. Claudette Singh to suppress the Region Four Statements of Poll should be a worrisome development for all persons who are interested in the preservation of democracy in Guyana.

 The Statements of Poll are documents which are critical to the transparent transmission of election results from the polling stations to the Elections Commission and their use in the tabulation process, and by extension in arriving at the final election result, is mandated in Article 84 of the Representation of the People Act.

 These documents do not belong to any one individual to withhold from the public just because they do not like the information contained therein.

 Ms. Claudette Singh, as the GECOM chairperson, has abdicated her responsibility to protect the custody of these vital documents and has in effect rendered them redundant to the electoral process.

 Her justification, if the Guyana Chronicle is to be believed, is that she had already committed to a recount of the votes.

 Thus, she has set the stage for making counting at the place of poll a mere formality in future elections since any incumbent government, displeased with the results contained in the Statements of Poll, may now arbitrarily call for a recount and may, justifiably, rely on the cooperation of GECOM in this regard.

 The recount is actually centralized ballot counting in disguise, which is the system that kept the PNC illegitimately in office for twenty-eight years.

 One need only to connect the dots to understand why the APNU+AFC , having previously been opposed to it in the courts, is now, all of a sudden, very vocal in their demands for the recount process to be implemented.

Proponents of free and fair elections in Guyana fought assiduously for this system to be dismantled and with a single vote Ms. Claudette Singh has undone all their hard work. An account of the events leading up to the necessity for this recount is unnecessary at this stage since this has been ventilated ad nauseam in the press and on social media.

 Suffice it to say, however, that the problem stemmed from the persistent refusal by Returning Officer Mingo to declare the results for District Four in accordance with the Statements of Poll from the polling stations in this district.

 In its current design, to judge from the emanations of the APNU+AFC commissioners at GECOM which are bolstered by the assenting votes of the Chairperson, this recount is purely intended to provide the proof , hitherto suspiciously unforthcoming from the APNU+AFC, that this party won the March 2nd elections.

 Further, the APNU+AFC is hoping that their sanctimonious embrace of the recount as being suddenly critical to the maintenance of democracy in Guyana will provide the stamp of legitimacy, so far lacking in their eight weeks of de facto governance, that they require from the international community in order to stave off the dreaded sanctions, personal and otherwise, and for them to rule effectively.

 If the PPP/C thinks otherwise, and that the recount will culminate in them being vindicated and being proffered the reins of government by the APNU+AFC, they should immediately disabuse themselves of these notions.

Whether the de facto APNU+AFC government will achieve their goal of acquiring legitimacy in the eyes of the international community, through the proposed recount depends on the credulity of the governments comprising this community and on how low they have set the standard for democratic elections in this part of the world.

Ms. Claudette Singh’s performance as the GECOM Chairperson will be judged on the basis of many criteria, not least of which is the delivery of an election that has been certified as being free, fair and credible by the various election observer missions. Her performance in this regard, thus far, is sadly lacking, as evidenced by the observer missions’ unanimous rejection of  GECOM’s declaration of results that show  the APNU+AFC as the winner of the March 2nd elections , on the grounds that the tabulation of the Region Four votes lacked credibility.

 One awaits with fearful anticipation the next actions of the Chairperson as she presides over a recount that, from all logic, is being carried out solely for the purposes of perhaps providing legitimacy to the current de facto APNU+AFC government which has no intention of relinquishing the power it usurped in the aftermath of the March 2nd elections.

Yours faithfully,

 Marcel Gaskin