A new audit of the election results for Region 10 has found that the AFC recorded more votes than the PPP/C in the general poll.
The findings of the Electoral Assistance Bureau (EAB) indicate that the newest opposition party polled 3,314 votes to the governing party's 3,282 - providing the latest indicator that the AFC might have won a geographical constituency seat for the region. The total for the parties represents 148 and 93 more than the Guyana Elections Commission's official declarations, respectively (the results were the opposite in the regional elections). In fact, the findings suggest that all parties except for the NDF and the TUF gained more votes than the figures that were officially declared.
In a statement issued yesterday, the Bureau said it is in the process of analysing digitised Statements of Poll (SOPs) for the general and regional elections. It noted that the analysis was delayed because it had not received the SOPs from GECOM officials, some of whom said that they were under instructions from either the chairman or the chief election officer. As a result, the Bureau obtained copies of the SOPs made available by the Carter Center, scanned from hard copies provided by the commission.
The audit of the SOPs was prompted by an anomaly that showed the results issued by the commission for 116 of 121 polling stations during the day were identical to the final results issued officially at 5:45 pm on August 31 for all the stations in the region. The Bureau said that it is unlikely that five outstanding stations are the ones at which zero votes were cast since they would not have resulted in the different final counts evident from the audit. On September 4, the Bureau wrote the commission seeking an explanation for the anomaly, but it did not receive a response. Since then, the AFC has challenged the allocation of a Region 10 geographic constituency seat on the grounds that it won more votes than the PPP/C.
Although it is fully cognisant of the AFC's claims, the Bureau has not addressed the question of seat allocation in its analysis. EAB programme director David Yhann told Stabroek News yesterday that the local observer group was not the authority to pronounce on the allocation of seats. "We just dealt with the numbers," he explained, "this is what the results say." He added that the observer group did not want to interpret the results, although he mentioned anyone is free to use the use the electoral formula to make their own calculations.
According to the Bureau's analysis for the general elections, there were 14,632 votes cast, with 337 rejected ballots, leaving 14,295 valid ballots. Of that figure, the AFC received 3,314, GAP-ROAR 88, JFAP 33, PNCR-1G 7,504, PPP/C 3,282 and the TUF 74. The analysis also found different results for the regional elections, where there were 14,632 total votes, 325 rejected ballots for 14,307 valid ballots. Here, the AFC got 3,130, GAP/ROAR 119, JFAP 26, NDF 25, PNCR 7,632, PPP/C 3,283, and the TUF 92.
The Bureau said that in general, the results of the audit suggest that the conduct of the polls was free and fair and that the counts performed at polling stations were valid. However, it did note the "undesirability of high votes rejected for want of an official mark at some polling places." Additionally, the Bureau said that in light of the inaccuracies that surfaced in the audit, it will delay the release of its final report on the 2006 elections until a more comprehensive assessment of SOPs from all regions can be undertaken. On completion of the analysis exercise, the report will be released.
A similar analysis has been done by former member of the elections commission Haslyn Parris. Parris has found that the seat allocation should have resulted in the PPP/C with 35 seats; PNCR-1G 22; AFC 5; GAP-ROAR 1; TUF 1; and JFAP 1. His findings differed from the commission's declared results by allocating a seat to the JFAP and reducing by one the 36 seats allocated to the PPP/C. He also indicated that the five AFC seats should have been two from the geographical constituencies Four and Ten, and three from their top up list. Parris communicated his findings to GECOM, and afterward PNCR leader Robert Corbin called on the commission to ensure that the official results accurately reflect the will of the electorate.