GECOM fails to agree on official order, work plan to trigger vote recount

The chair and six Commissioner of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Thursday failed to agree on the legal order which must be gazetted in order to trigger the national recount of votes cast on March 2. In addition, the Commission could not agree on how long the process will take.

Commissioner Sase Gunraj said he expected the Commission will be able to finalise the order on Friday. He said too he expects the draft work plan will also be finalised.

Commissioner Gunraj said that the process cannot be an open-ended one because that could open the door to “issues” that will result in an inordinate delay.

The COVID-19 Task Force has recommended that there should be 10 recount stations. It was earlier indicated the recount will take place from 08:00 hrs to 18:00 hrs.

A rough calculation, based on the 2, 339 boxes that must be counted, would take over a month, Gunraj stated.

Commissioner Vincent Alexander said it was suggested that Day One be used as a sort of a similation exercise to determine the amount of time it would take to count one box.

The issue of how the recount will take place – whether region by region the results would be declared or if there would be a cumulative declaration – is also still a matter of contention.

No decision has been taken on whether certain staff of GECOM would be used.