Ballot boxes not being counted in sequential order; Shuman says attempts being made to derail Reg. 4 count
Ballot boxes are not being counted in sequential order, causing some political parties to believe that there is an attempt to derail the recount process, especially for Region Four.
APNU+AFC Executive Member David Patterson told reporters outside the Arthur Chung Conference Center Wednesday morning that the ballot boxes were not packed in sequential order inside the containers and so there was difficultly in locating the boxes labelled ‘One’.
“Unfortunately another delay will be because they were not packed sequentially and that will be another delay because they are starting from Ballot Box one, two and three so they will have to do some searching.
“They are right now going through containers for Region Three so as soon as they find the boxes with 3001, 3002 etc…” Patterson told reporters earlier.
Subsequently, Presidential Candidate for the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) Lenox Shuman confirmed that boxes for none of the regions are being counted sequentially.
He believes the stage is being set for the recount Region Four to be derailed, referring to heated exchanges in three recount stations Wednesday morning by party agents attached to the APNU+AFC that occurred simultaneously.
“There is a coordinated attempt by the PNC to derail Region Four count.
“It seems as though they had this down to a time that at such and such time, they’re going to engage in this because we know that the lady, her daughter and another agent all sought to disrupt the Region Four count at the very same time so that cannot be something by chance. It’s obviously an attempt to undermine and derail the Region Four count at this point.
“We are keeping a watchful eye on it,” Shuman told reporters.
The Presidential Candidate also expressed concern that the Statements of Recount (SORs) will not be sent to the tabulation center until the district is completely counted.
“We are going to be given SORs at the end of each count but when that is done, it is not going to the tabulation center which is unfortunate because our understanding is that we would always see a count as to how the votes are being tabulated.
“What we were made to understand is that when they’re done with one district, they’re going to take it to the tabulation center to be able to provide that data when it completed.
“That is very very unfortunate because I think the nation deserves to hear pretty much how the votes are being counted,” Shuman said.
The recount process is being scrutinized by a three-member CARICOM team and is expected to last for 11 hours each day for the next 25 days.
