There is much discussion over a proposed recount of votes from the March 2 elections in order to certify which party won. It is proposed that the recount could take 156 days; that is ridiculous. Recounting of votes is unnecessary and will not produced results much different from what the world community knows. There must be a recounting of Statements of Polls (SOPs) before there can be a recounting of votes. The law requires a certification of SOPs after a count is taken. After the certification of SOPs, a declaration of the winner is made. Then parties man mount a legal challenge to the count via an election petition if they are dissatisfied with the process or the count.
The certification of SOPs for all regions is required by law. So far, certification of SOPs have not been completed. The process was halted prematurely. It was never completed according to established rules and regulations. This required exercise of certification of SOPs needs completion.
There was never anything wrong with the count of the ballots or the SOPs for any of the ten regions, save just a little over half of Region 4. There is no need to recount ballots; no one ever objected to the counting of ballots prior to the Clairmont Mingo fraud of March 5. The problem with Region 4 was/is with the verification (certification) of the remaining SOPs after some 421 were certified. Gecom must get on with that task of certifying the other SOPs.
After the count (or recount) of SOPs has been completed, then the country and the world would be in a position to know definitively the outcome of the vote. Then if need be, a request for a recount of ballots may be filed by any party as the law allows for it. But a recount of ballots cannot occur until the certification process of region 4 is complete.
Mingo’s fraudulent count was thrown out by the court and by Gecom. Mingo has been held in contempt of court for engaging in fraud and not following the directive of the court to engage in a transparent count of the SOPs. He must not be allowed any further participation of the certification of SOPs. He must be replaced. The verification of region 4 must be done transparently in the presence of party agents as well as observers as was the case with the SOPs for the other ballot boxes.