Guyana's May 11 election ended in controversy on which political force actually won resulting in a petition over the request to the election commission (Gecom) for a recount. Gecom's refusal of a vote recount has led to suspicion of something amiss about the result.
In virtually every established democracy, including T&T, a close electoral outcome resulted (sometimes automatically) in a recount. Where a recount was not automatically triggered, candidates or parties asked for one. And when a recount was refused by officials, the court intervened mandating recounts.
In virtually no court case in the US, UK and Canada did a judge not order a recount. It could not be understood why Guyana based representatives of the US, UK and Canada objected to recounts when the laws allowed for them in Guyana as well as in their own countries.
Many analysts felt the representatives wanted a certain result and did not care much for democracy or the rule of law–a certain outcome (ejection of the PPP from office) trumped everything else.
Recounts were/are held in virtually every close election in America–the most famous being the 2000 Florida presidential recount (that was not carried to completion and that handed George Bush a victory, some six weeks later, perhaps unjustly). There was a recount in the New York Democratic Mayoral primary in September 2013 in which Bill DeBlasio (current mayor) narrowly edged out African American Bill Thompson. A recount was held in the Minnesota Senate race in 2008 and the winner not known some three months after the election. The election for governor of Washington State on November 2, 2004, ended in court and took weeks to be declared.
In the November 2014 Congressional election, one California district was not declared until a month later because the Republican challenger filed a petition against the incumbent Indian American Democrat (Ami Bera) who won by a few hundred votes. In Canada's 41st general election held on May 2, 2011, there were bitter disputes over the results in some districts after several candidates won their seats with razor thin margins. Judicial recounts were ordered in numerous seats in Canada's election after election.
Also, in the UK, recounts took place when the initial vote tally during an election was close. Court cases (election petitions) resulted from elections in UK, US and Canada to determine the true winners. Recounts occurred in Trinidad in virtually every election, where the margin of victory in a seat is less than two per cent. The 2013 local elections had several recounts. The same held true in every Caricom country in several elections–ballots were recounted in every closely contested seat to ascertain the winner, most recently in Antigua, St Kitts, Dominica, Barbados, Jamaica, etc.
Guyana's law allows for a recount before the declaration of the results. One was requested but turned down even when there were allegations of fraud, multiple voting, and fake statements of poll results.
It is also noted that Guyana had a relatively high level of spoilt votes. This should have triggered an automatic recount especially that one party lost a seat by only one vote. Why Gecom did not do a recount in that seat is inexplicable. The announced result in Guyana was a political gambit and a recount was essential to certify the winner. As argued by lawyers in US court cases, a proper count is the best possible count to clear doubt about an election winner.
In developing countries like Guyana, in order to avoid a situation where there has been so much bickering over election results going back to the 1950s, and which exploded into ethnic violence, a recount should have been mandatory given the closeness of the result.
Dr Vishnu Bisram
Via email
