A recount of all the votes cast in Region Four Sub-District 4, which covers the East Coast Demerara, got off to a heated start this morning at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) High Street Office as polling agents for the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) clashed over the position of the ‘x’ on the ballot paper.
A ballot could be deemed rejected if it is void of certainty. However, the law states that once the intention of the voter is clear, the vote is valid once the identity of the elector has not been disclosed.
With a total of 1,417 rejected ballots in Region 4 alone, and a significant decline in votes, the APNU requested the recount of the ballots cast in sub-district 4. There were a total of 790 ballot boxes in the East Coast Sub-district.
Outside the GECOM head office, General Secretary of We Invest in Nationhood (WIN), Odessa Primus told reporters that the arguments have subsided and the recount has been progressing.
“It has gotten a bit better after the blow up a few minutes ago of course by the PPP agents which is very unfortunate. If we are here for a recount process, it should be one that is simple, we just go through the Statement of Poll and do our checks and tabulation and so forth. There is no need for all this hostility and aggression, and I believe that Guyana needs a fresh set of politicians who are not here for power or to be pompous but rather who is here to ensure that the interest of the people is represented,” Primus told reporters.
WIN had written GECOM requesting a recount of the all the ballots cast in Regions 4 and 8, but its applications were rejected by the Elections Commission. In its correspondence to WIN in both cases, the Elections Secretariat said that an election agent was not authorized to make a request for a recount, and as such, the requests were null and void.
Primus said WIN is considering its next steps, including a recourse to the Court.
“At this juncture to the best of my knowledge it could only be appealed through the courts because the time for that to happen has passed. We are to make a decision on whether or not that is going to be appealed through the courts within the hour,” she said.
Alliance For Change (AFC), Chief Election Scrutineer, Nicola Trotman has also been involved in the recount process. Trotman said with a total of 25 workstations set up to facilitate the recount, the process has been progressing.
“We have 25 stations operation, and it is hard to say exactly what is happening, Everybody is doing their stations. It has stations where they had queries, objections. So, all in all, the recount is happening,” she said.
The recount is expected to continue into tonight. GECOM Commissioner Sase Gunraj reported that so far, the recount has not resulted in any changes to the results of the completed ballot boxes.
The APNU lost its strongholds to the WIN party and the PPP/C.
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