Dear Editor:
The absurdity of the recount order is even more pronounced. It is obvious that a semi-audit is in process, in conjunction with a count.
For example, Station Two spent 13 minutes sorting out and counting blank tally sheets! Having worked as a polling agent numerous times, I can assure you my use or non-use of GECOM’s tally sheets makes not one iota of a difference to the counting and totals of ballots cast for respective parties; so what is at play here? Why is such an irrelevant/optional piece of paper given any attention? It seems the APNU/AFC is in search of ‘discrepancies’ in a bid to discredit an election they claim to have won.
As Day One ended, APNU/AFC activists James Bond and Sherod Duncan took to social media platforms to claim that a ‘dead man’ had voted. They produced a death certificate and then made the stunning claim that they knew which party he had voted for, namely the PPPC.
We know the dead cannot vote, but someone can impersonate another on the list of voters, dead or alive. We also know that the secrecy of the ballot booth prevents anyone from knowing an elector’s choice; there is no serial number or other identifying numbers on a ballot of an elector, dead or alive.
Bond and Duncan are not for nothing known as leaders of the ‘blow-blow’ brigade.
Immediately after Mingo’s declaration, Bond and Duncan were vociferous in their calls to have Mr. Granger sworn in as President, and “let the blow-blow blow”. It cannot have escaped notice that these two men are now in the forefront of the campaign to delay and discredit the 2020 General and Regional Elections.
There are going to be all sorts of issues: more votes than names ticked off on a list by a Returning Officer is one that has been raised. Those of us who have worked in polling stations can tell you that, no matter how diligent you are, the pace and impatience of voters in the peak hours can lead to names not being ticked. Some ROs and polling agents work together to reconcile the lists during the slack time, some do not. It does not invalidate votes, or suggest electoral fraud.
There is no statutory requirement for the RO to tick names off the list. The List is of eligible voters for a particular station, nothing more or less. The ticking of names is optional, to assist with a more efficient counting after the close of polls. If the RO and the Polling agents all agree that 123 people voted, they know what number must be reconciled in the total.
It is obvious that many who are commenting and speculating on the electoral process have never worked in a polling station on a polling day, and do not appreciate the professionalism on display by the GECOM staff. Mingo and Meyers are aberrations far removed from the norm.
APNU/AFC now know they have lost the election. They have sent their top disruptors to the Counting Centre to cause as much delay as possible; to raise as many discrepancies, and to confuse simple issues with empty rhetoric. Day one brought Humpty Dumpty to mind; today (Thursday), APNU/AFC remind me of a silly rhyme: “Chitty-chitty bang-bang sitting on a fence, trying to make a dollar out of 65 cents”.
Respectfully,
Robin Singh
