The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is looking at options which could speed up the national recount of votes cast in the March 2 general and regional elections; those options include adding more workstations and cutting down on the number of documents from the ballot boxes examined.
GECOM had initially proposed 25 days for the recount exercise, which was subject to review after one week. After seven days, roughly 10% of the 2,339 ballot boxes have been counted.
There are currently 10 workstations, but GECOM, through its Public Relations Officer (PRO) Yolanda Ward, could not immediately say how many additional stations will be established.
Ward explained that the Commission’s Chair, Justice Claudette Singh, is expected to reach out to the National COVID-10 Task Force to ask for health officials to visit the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) on Wednesday and make an “on the spot decision” on if there could be more workstations.
Commissioners toured the ACCC facility – where the recount is ongoing – to identify areas for additional stations on Tuesday.
The 10 workstations are currently completing roughly 45-55 boxes on a given day, the PRO said, adding that that number can be increased to 70 or even 80 depending on how many stations are established.
Apart from counting the ballots in each box, at each workstation, a number of documents are checked.
Parties have complained that this checking exercise has made the process much more time consuming and will prolong the exercise unnecessarily.
Ward said that in an effort to save time, the Commission will decide on Tuesday on specific documents to be checked, thereby reducing some time spent on each box.
“It was an observation that we can look at the content being examine, how some of that time can be minimized and just to focus on the contents which are relevant to the process,” she said.
One of those documents which she suggested can be ignored during the recount is a ‘Folio,’ which is a document containing photographs of each electorate.
Additionally, a recently-added observation report will only contain anomalies discovered, and not every objection.
“We have decided just to record the anomalies in the process. So it cuts back on the time it takes to prepare the report,” Ward noted.
She also clarified that objections to the allegations made will also be recorded on the observation report.
Meanwhile, a document containing 25 issues and how they are to be resolved, was prepared by GECOM and will be filtered through the GECOM Secretariat and ultimately to the workstations.
That document outlines a list of issues which have been previously settled but which keeps reoccurring at many of the recount stations. As such, the document is expected to provide a guide in the event that those issues resurface.
