People’s Progressive Party/Civic-nominated GECOM Commissioner, Sase Gunraj, is of the view that if GECOM were to go ahead and set up the additional workstations independent of the National COVID-19 Task Force, the electoral body would not be in breach of any local laws.
Gunraj told reporters outside the Arthur Chung Convention Centre (ACCC), there is nothing preventing the electoral body from moving in this direction, which is aimed at speeding up the recount process.
“I don’t believe that they will be in breach of any laws if we are to go ahead and establish the stations without the (Taskforce) report,” he said.
The PPP/C Commissioner disclosed that GECOM has, in fact, hired a company specifically for sanitisation of the facilities and measures such as social distancing and the wearing of marks are being ‘peer policed.’
As such, he posited “we are following the (WHO) guidelines, and perhaps exceeding those, so there is nothing stopping us from putting in two new stations.”
Commissioners of the GECOM met on Monday to discuss measures aimed at increasing the number of ballot boxes being counted each day during the recount of votes cast on March 2, last, but a decision is still to be taken.
This is, in part, as a result of the failure of the COVID-19 Task Force to provide its report advising on whether the Commission should establish the two additional counting stations to supplement the 12 in operation currently. The original timeframe for the recount is 25 days.
According to Gunraj, the Commission has recognised a need to identify a definitive end for the recount process and “in getting there efficiently.”
“What I believe was agreed on is for a need to have some definitive end to this process and in getting there, that the efficiency that we are currently operating at needs to be improved and improved significantly,” Gunraj said.
The decision by GECOM to have its elections recount operations be influenced by the Moses Nagamootoo-led COVID-19 Task Force has come in for stinging rebuke from various stakeholders.
Former Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall was adamant that; “in so far as the Task Force purports to regulate the work of the Commission, it is unlawful and unconstitutional.”
Qualifying his assertion, Nandlall had said “I am fortified in my views by the crystal language of Article 226 (1) of the Constitution “…in the exercise of its functions under this Constitution, a Commission shall not be subject to the direction or control of any person or authority. GECOM is one of the Commissions to which this Article applies”.
