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Apr 22, 2020 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
The problems with the 1997 elections were linked to the results of District Four. There has never been an investigation into why some of the ‘runners’ for District Four ran off with the results to Congress Place instead to the GECOM Headquarters.
GECOM had employed a system, then, in which the results would have been called into to GECOM via radio and telephone. Interestingly, for District Four, the region in which GECOM headquarters are located, there was a system of ‘runners’ who were used to bring the results in to GECOM headquarters.
It was discovered, amazingly, that not a single report from District Four had been received at Command Headquarters on election night and that by the next afternoon a mere trickle of results had been received from that District.
The disappearing act of some of the ‘runners’ was never investigated. It would have exposed where the missing runners went and who were the actors, both within and outside of GECOM, who were behind their disappearance.
The PNC used that breakdown in the transmission of the results to sow suspicions about the conduct of elections even though it would have had its own statements of polls which would have indicated that the party had lost the elections. The Caricom Audit Team subsequently confirmed this fact.
A poor man, who eked out a living selling empty and discarded drinks bottles, was accused of storing ballot boxes in his home in Albouystown. He was kidnapped and taken to Congress Place where he was interrogated by none other than Desmond Hoyte. To date, no one has ever been charged with the kidnapping of that poor man.
GECOM undertook a verification exercise in light of the suspicions which had been generated. It was halted and then resumed afterwards. During the course of that resumption, the then Chairman made an accurate but ill-advised comment to the effect that the verification will not change anything.
The PNC used that statement to walk away from the verification process. They were just waiting for an excuse since they would have walked in any event, knowing that they had lost.
The failure of GECOM to conduct an internal probe into its operations during the 1997 elections was one of two major errors on its part. The other error was the Commission’s failure to appeal Justice Claudette Singh’s decision in the elections petition case. The outgoing Chairman, Doodnauth Singh, had indicated that he wished to see an appeal for each of the grounds of Justice Singh’s decision. He was never afforded the right to do so.
History has an uncanny way of repeating itself. The problems this time around revolve around the bald-faced rigging during the tabulation of District Four’s results. And strangely, despite this rigging is being done in ‘broad daylight’ and in the presence of international and local observers, there are elements within the APNU+AFC who are attempting to deceive their supporters into believing that the recount will give the Coalition a victory.
People are being fooled and conned. The votes were counted at the places of poll in all 10 districts. This count took place in the presence of the party agents. They would have countersigned the Statements of Polls and would have been provided with a copy. Their parties would have those statements of poll.
The Statements of Polls would have been submitted to the respective Returning Officers and copied to the Chief Elections Officers who should have been able to use an adding machine and determine the outcome of the elections but that is another story.
The Returning Officers in nine of the 10 Districts would have undertaken a tabulation process, again in the presence of observers and polling agents. They would have gone through each Statement of Poll. In nine of the 10 Districts, this process went smoothly and the results were declared without controversy.
In District Four, half of the Statements of Polls were smoothly tabulated. It was only after it became clear that a certain result was in the making that the process was paused and then Mingo ‘did his thing’.
The APNU+AFC must not fool its supporters into believing that the recount will end in its favour. These supporters must not be led astray.
One of the risks of the recount is that a desperate APNU+AFC will find an excuse to walk away from it, like the PNC did to the verification process during the 1997 elections. The other danger is that there will be an attempt to rig the recount. This is why the presence of the observers is so vital.
The PPPC has produced its Statements of Polls which show that it won the elections by more than 17,000 votes. This is not a lead which can be overturned by the recount. The small parties did well in District Four also. This too cannot be overturned in any recount.
The supporters of the APNU+AFC must begin to ask themselves why the Coalition lost the elections. The results – as signaled by the showing of the small parties – point to the failure of the AFC to bring in its quota of votes. The Coalition members must ask themselves why?
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)
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