Chief Elections Officers Vishnu Persaud has stated that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is currently engaged in the post-election processes following Monday’s Local Government Elections (LGE).
These, according to Persaud during a telephone interview with this publication on Wednesday, including dealing with requests for recounts from the parties that contested the elections.
“We’re treating with the immediate post-election activities. Right now, we’re dealing with requests for recount,” the CEO indicated.
The ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has asked for recounts in four constituencies across the country, while the A Partnership for National Unity made one request for Constituency #4 (Lamaha Gardens, Newtown Campbellville, Section K Campbellville & Bel Air Park) in Georgetown.
The PPP/C’s four requests are for Constituency Six (Cummings Lodge/Turkeyen) in the Georgetown municipality; Plegt Anker/Kortberaadt in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne); La Retraite on the West Bank of Demerara; and in the Mahaica/Abary constituency.
Persaud informed this publication that these recount requests will be processed by Friday. In fact, he noted that three of the recounts would be completed by the end of Wednesday and one today, while the remaining one will commence and be completed on Friday.
Asked about GECOM’s analysis of data obtained from Monday’s local government polls such as voter turnout, the Chief Elections Officer posited that “While I do understand how important such information would be, we are nowhere there.”
“What we had in the Local Government Election was in fact, 80 separate elections for which the numbers of votes cast are recorded in those areas… We would have to do an analysis of all of the votes cast for the Local Government Election to determine an average turnout. We would first be establishing the turnout within the respective Local Authority Areas and then we would bring them together to determine an average national turnout,” he added.
At the last local government polls in 2018, there was a 36 per cent voter turnout recorded.
Meanwhile, Persaud further pointed out that the results from the various constituencies have been declared since LGE polling day by the respective Returning Officers.
“There is a misconception that like the General Elections, GECOM will be making a declaration. In Local Government Elections, that doesn’t happen. An official declaration is required to be made and that was in fact made in the case of Georgetown – that official declaration was made [Tuesday] night – as was done the previous night for most of the other Local Authority Areas. It is the Returning Officer who is statutorily authorised to make that declaration and, in the case, of all the other Local Authority Areas, that has already been done,” the Chief Election Officer stated.
GECOM has been uploading the LGE results from the various constituencies across the country on its website. Based on those figures and its own tabulation, the PPP/C has swept 66 of the 80 LAAs in Guyana including seven of the 10 townships.
General Secretary of the PPP, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has called it a “landslide victory” of the 2023 LGE as the party has made major inroads in the three main municipalities traditionally controlled by the APNU – Georgetown, New Amsterdam and Linden.
In Georgetown, the PPP has nearly doubled its votes, securing 12,553 votes at Monday’s polls compared to 6,813 in 2018.
According to Jagdeo, the party won five of the 15 constituencies, that is, Constituencies #1 (Kingston/Albertown/Queenstown); #2 (Kitty/Subryanville); #3 (Bell Air Gardens/Bell Air Springs); #4 (Lamaha Gardens/Newtown) and #7 (Bourda/Stabroek /Lacytown).
However, the party is looking to make it six with the recount request for Constituency #6 (Cummings Lodge North, Central & South, Pattensen/Turkenyen South), where the PPP lost by only four votes but there were over 150 spoilt ballots.
With regards to the Plegt Anker/Kortberaadt area where the PPP has asked for a recount, the General Secretary explained that during the voting process, the Presiding Officer at that polling station mistakenly handed out tendered ballots to a number of eligible voters.
“These were legitimate voters and they should have gotten a regular ballot. Tendered ballots are not counted. If we succeed, it will change the whole NDC…We believe that all of the people on the tendered ballots voted PPP. It could be a genuine mistake. I am not saying that the Presiding Officer did something deliberate. It just happened,” Jagdeo reasoned.
In La Retraite on the West Bank of Demerara, the PPP has requested a recount of two ballot boxes after it lost by a mere one vote. The same situation was the basis for the recount request for Mahaica/Abary area.
“There are two boxes there [in La Retraite] that we have asked for a recount. We won the overall area but, in that constituency, we lost by a single vote.”
Even before going to the polls, the PPP/C had 291 of the 610 constituencies, being the lone contester.
