—APNU+AFC iterates cases of irregularities
—-says voters expressed “disgust and anger” that rights disenfranchised
THE A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) has iterated its calls for the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to state how and when it is going to address a number of unresolved issues coming out of the national recount process.
In an online press briefing on Monday, APNU General Secretary, Joseph Harmon, said that, after reviewing over 699 of the ballot boxes during the recount, his party has found qualitative irregularities that amount to over 86,367 votes.
Listing the unresolved issues which he said must be resolved, he pointed to cases where several ballot papers had the same counter foil numbers. He said that poses the question of whether there were fake ballots printed, and how widespread, if so.
Added to this, he said, are missing Official List of Electors (OLEs) in several ballot boxes or OLEs belonging to one ballot box being found in an entirely different ballot box. Meanwhile, in other cases, he said that ballots distinguished by colour coding to represent their requisite Regions were found in ballot boxes of the wrong Region.
Harmon said that these last two cases pose the question of whether ballot boxes were tampered with and to what extent. “GECOM has to explain this,” he said.
Another matter the APNU+AFC has requested clarity on is the matter of unstamped ballots belonging to the disciplined services.
Members of the disciplined services cast their ballots on February 21, 2020 ahead of the March 2, 2020 elections. This is done to ensure that they are available to serve on E-Day. Their ballots are not stamped at the time they are cast but on E-Day when they are intermixed at specified polling stations.
However, the recount process had uncovered that, on numerous occasions, those ballots were not stamped, or were stamped only on one half of the ballot paper and were therefore deemed invalid.
GECOM Public Relations Officer (PRO), Yolanda Ward, last told the media on May 18 that the Commission will have to investigate the matter further to determine how it should proceed. The Opposition believes that GECOM does not have the right to conduct such investigations and this should be a matter for the courts.
Since this irregularity was unveiled in the recount, Harmon said that several ranks of the disciplined services have expressed their “disgust and anger”.
To ensure that these ballots are not disregarded during the recount process as they are based not on the fault of the voter, Harmon said: “We have called upon GECOM to ensure that the votes of the disciplined services, that they are counted. We will insist on that because it was clear for all to see that the overwhelming majority of the disciplined services personnel, that they were in support of the APNU + AFC. So, it would appear to be a calculated effort to ensure that those votes, which they knew were going to come our way, that they were deemed invalid.”
Harmon said that for years, Guyana’s electoral system has been “fraught with unresolved issues” which the APNU+AFC believes has presented an avenue for the People’s Progressive Party /Civic (PPP/C) to illegally obtain votes.
He said that this infringes on the democratic right of the people to elect a government of their choice and, through the recount process, the APNU+AFC has been able to expose many cases of such infringement.
“We have discovered that after reviewing over 699 of these boxes, that the qualitative irregularities that we found amounted to over 86,367 votes. These show that the dead voted, the out-of-country voted, missing poll books, affidavits of identities not signed, etcetera. It points to a systematic undermining of the GECOM process and fraud on the Guyanese population,” Harmon said.
As the recount progresses, his party anticipates that more irregularities will be uncovered. He said that APNU+AFC agents will continue to highlight such irregularities despite the position of some that they should not be highlighted.
He also said that the APNU+AFC has noticed that the main Opposition and other smaller parties have not expressed much concerns about these irregularities save to question the validity and legality of the proof being provided by the coalition.
He said that the Opposition’s criticism is that the APNU+AFC recount but now deems the process “fraught with unresolved issues”.
“The declarations made and on record at the Guyana Elections Commission is that the majority of votes cast in the March 2, 2020 elections were cast in favor of the List of Candidates for the APNU + AFC. Questions of the credibility of the process arose and it was agreed that a recount of the valid votes will be done in all ten electoral districts. APNU + AFC made it pellucid that any recount would reveal significant irregularities committed by the PPP/C amounting to electoral fraud and that the results would put into serious doubt the fictitious statements presented by the PPP/C and shared with the international community,” he said, adding:
“Yes, it is true that we called for a recount. The question, however, needs to be asked of the Guyana Elections Commission, how and when are you going to address the unresolved issues that are before the Commission that have been unearthed.”
He said that such irregularities which the party sincerely believes will affect the outcome of the elections, cannot be ignored by the Commission which has the duty to present Guyanese with a free, fair and credible elections process.
Source: https://issuu.com/guyanachroniclee-paper/docs/guyana_chronicle_epaper_26_05_2020