The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) in release to the media explained that in light of the written judgement by the Chief Justice, the tabulation exercise will resume on Friday, March 13, 2020 at the 9:00h at the Ashmin’s Building, High and Hadfield Streets, Georgetown.
As such, all stakeholders who were present and approved by the Returning Officer (RO) on Thursday are asked to take noted. They are all requested at the appoint time to witness the count, GECOM stated.
Earlier today, Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission Justice Claudette Singh suspended the tabulation process of the votes for District Four (Demerara-Mahaica) to seek clarity on the Chief Justice Roxane George’s ruling.
It was reported that the Commission was not in receipt of the written judgment to have a better understanding of the ruling
Representatives of political parties were at odds with Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo when he attempted to use a spreadsheet to do the count for Region Four.
In a recording heard by this publication, Mingo said: “The numbers I have on the spreadsheet are the numbers I extracted from the original Statements of Poll that were issued to me…those are my Statements of Poll. Mine!”
“To arrive at these spreadsheets, I took each Statements of Poll, inputted into our computer, tabulated it and come up with these sheets for each polling station,” Mingo added.
A party representative then asked, “How can we verify what you’ve inputted in those SOPs is the correct figures?”
Mingo replied by saying that “If it does not follow, then there is a course of action which is specified in the law you may follow.” Observers and party representatives continued to protest the use of the spreadsheet.
Thereafter, the GECOM Chairperson arrived and addressed the gathering where she subsequently suspended the process to seek clarity.
Chief Justice Roxane George on Wednesday ruled that RO did not compile the tabulation of the majority of the SOPs in a transparent manner to ensure accountability in front of the statutorily authorised stakeholders.
In her ruling, she urged that the new process be done in a transparent manner so as to restore confidence in the electoral process.
