GECOM sets June 16 for declaration of election results from recount if recount data is used

Last Updated on Friday, 29 May 2020, 17:14 by Denis Chabrol

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on Friday issued an amended order setting June 16 as the deadline by which results of the March 2, 2020 general elections may be declared based on the recount but again made it clear that this will depend on whether the seven-member body should use the data from that exercise.

Formalising the new recount deadline to on or before June 13, 2020, the order further requires the Chief Elections Officer to tabulate the matrices of the 10 electoral districts for his submission in a report, together with a summary of the observation report for each district.

Those two  reports, according to the order that was gazetted Friday, must be submitted to the Commission  “on or before the 13th day of June, 2020.”

The Order says the Commission first has to decide whether the figures from the recount should be used to ultimately decide the outcome of the presidential, parliamentary and regional council elections.

If the Commission decides that the Chief Elections Officer can use the data from the report to compile a report under Section 96 of the Representation of the People  Act Cap 1:03, it is only three days after receiving that report that the Commission will “make the declaration of the results of the final credible count of the elections held on the 2nd of May, 2020.”

Uncertainty in some quarters about whether the recount data will be used is grounded in concerns by the incumbent A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has rigged the elections by having people who voted in the names of migrants and deceased persons, voting without oaths of identity and voting without certificates of identity.

The Commission has held the 10 declarations by the 10 District Returning Officers, saying they are still illegal.