Pasaron tres meses de las elecciones y aún no hay resultados finales
PPP/C leading APNU+AFC by over 18,000 votes
With just about 80% of ballot boxes tabulated the People’s Progressive Party/Civic leads the APNU+AFC Coalition by more than 18,000 votes at the General Elections.
According to the tabulation figures published by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) at the end of day 28 a total of 1,869 General Statements of Recount (SORs) and 1,858 Regional SORs have been recorded including the complete count for Districts One, Two, Three, Five, Seven, Eight and Nine.
These SORs show a total of 162,557 votes for the incumbent APNU+AFC compared to 180,732 votes for the PPP/C. The six other parties which contested the General Elections have so far secured a combined total of 7,073 of the votes cast.
More APNU/AFC “migrant voters” prove they were here to vote
The list of alleged migrant voters in the possession of the Guyana Elections Commission continues to be debunked. In an interview with this publication, 30-year-old Kaminie Singh expressed shock at the allegations against her, since she has not left the country in over five years. Kaminie Singh displaying her national identification card at her West Coast Demerara home on Tuesday Kaminie Singh’s name appears on the list APNU/AFC submitted to GECOM, on the basis that those voters were out of the country but yet voted. GECOM, in turn, received confirmation from Police Commissioner Leslie James that 172 of those persons were indeed out of the country.
According to Singh, however, the last time she left Guyana was back in 2014, when she travelled to the United States. She confirmed that she was present and voted on March 2 in person at the Cornelia Ida Nursery School, West Coast of Demerara (WCD).
“I was in the country and I voted on that day…Cornelia Ida Nursery School, that’s where I voted. I don’t know [why they’d say] I was out of the country, but I did travel in 2014 to the United States. That was the last time I travelled,” Singh said on Tuesday.
This publication was also shown Singh’s passport details, confirming the trip to and from the United States in 2014. Syndey Douglas Jones “I stayed in New York, a little less than three weeks. And I did return, I’ve been living in Guyana since then. I got married, had a family, family business, I am working at a school,” she also emphasised.
Meanwhile, another voter whom APNU/AFC claimed migrated, Nishani Bissessar, presented an Affidavit of Existence and Presence on Tuesday to attest to her physically voting. She denied the claims, contained in the list of ‘migrant’ voters, that she was out of the country. Kimbelie Karishma Raghunandan displaying her national identification card “On March 2nd, 2020, I presented myself to Vergenoegen Nursery School, which I had identified through GECOM advertisements, as the polling place where I was to vote. I used my identification card to identify myself and I voted. I complied with all that GECOM asked of me before, during and after I cast my ballot,” she said.
Meanwhile, Syndey Douglas Jones, who was also listed as as migrated has also confirmed that he was in Guyana on Elections Day and voted at Diamond, East Bank Demerara.
The 75-year-old on man on Tuesday was in the presence of his nephew where his identifcation card was displayed.
Additionally, Kimbelie Karishma Raghunandan, also confirmed her presence in Guyana on Elections Day where he voted in person. Nishani Bissessar’s Affidavit of Existence and Presence These confirmations come just a day after Compton Bacchus and Amos Bhola of Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) both denied the allegations that they were migrant voters.
The publication of the list has led to a number of other persons taking to social media disputing the claims they were out of the country.
In a widely criticised move, GECOM Chair, Retired Justice Claudette Singh had written to Police Commissioner Leslie James, in his capacity as Chief Immigration Officer, to have him verify whether those on the list were out of the country.
At this time, however, there is no word on whether ballots were issued for these individuals or whether they voted via proxy. For instance, APNU/AFC had previously claimed that a deceased elector had voted. Further checks had revealed, however, that the woman was never issued a ballot on Election Day. In addition, GECOM, through its Public Relations Officer, Yolanda Ward, admitted that no checks were made on the names to see if ballots were issued.
The main opposition party, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), has labelled this as a fishing expedition that APNU/AFC has sent GECOM on. According to them, this is all part of the coalition’s “nefarious” political agenda of delaying the recount.
“We wish to highlight that a political party, APNU+AFC, not the Government, was provided by the Commissioner of Police/Immigration Department with the immigration records of citizens without their consent, which APNU+AFC is using for its nefarious political agenda. The matter is compounded by the Commissioner of Police purporting to verify the very information that he or his servants/agents supplied to that political party.”
The party added that it is already on the public record that APNU/AFC is concocting these allegations. “One would recall a couple in Berbice who are in Guyana and voted for APNU+AFC, but APNU+AFC claimed that those persons were overseas on Elections Day. This issue was fully ventilated in the Kaieteur News,” the party said in a recent statement.
According to the party, they have found hundreds of cases where persons who APNU/AFC claimed were out of the jurisdiction but voted, were, in fact, present in Guyana at the time of the March 2 General and Regional Elections.
The media itself has carried several such exposés, with APNU/AFC claims even being denied by a Berbice couple, Shirley and Aubrey Nicholson of Kortberaadt Village, who said that not only were they in Guyana on Election Day, they voted for the coalition.
Police now say “migrant voters” travelled “illegally”
In an astounding turn of events, the Guyana Police Force on Monday claimed their statement that verified APNU/AFC’s allegation that 172 voters were actually abroad cannot be debunked by the persons proving that they were, in fact, in Guyana on March 2 even though their passports have no stamps, because persons travel “illegally”.
The GPF is now following GECOM to insist their employees are corrupt so as to uphold the People’s National Congress’s (PNC) wild assertions designed to support rigging.
The Force in a statement stated that “the administration of the Force iterates that migration data produced by the Immigration Department of the Guyana Police Force is generated through its record system which includes an Electronic Border Management System.”
In addition, the Force stated that the system, however, does not record persons who travelled illegally.
“Hence, the Guyana Police Force stands by the information provided to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM),” the GPF added. This statement has since caused much debate as to the Guyana Police Force’s motive in making such a claim.
In a unilateral decision, GECOM Chair, Retired Justice Claudette Singh had written to Police Commissioner Leslie James in his capacity as the Chief Immigration Officer, asking him to probe the allegations made by APNU/AFC that persons who voted were actually out of the country.
Attached to the letter was a list of those names of alleged ‘migrant’ voters. It was reported that the Commissioner had responded to the letter and informed the GECOM Chair that 172 persons who were on the list were out of the country.
However, there is no word on whether ballots were issued for these individuals. Since the list was revealed to the public, four persons on the list have come forward proving that they never left the country and voted in person on E-Day.
The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has since said they have found hundreds of cases where persons who APNU/AFC claimed were out of the jurisdiction but voted, were, in fact, present in Guyana at the time of the March 2 General and Regional Elections.
The PPP had also related that it will seek a meeting with the GECOM Chair, regarding this development since it predicts that APNU/AFC’s claims of electoral fraud will increase over the coming days.
“It will be recalled that in a sample of 87 ballot boxes on the East Bank Demerara, Mingo fraudulently gifted to APNU+AFC over 5000 votes. In order to detract from Mingo’s fraud and in their frantic effort to prevent the declaration of the final results of the recount, the likes of Joseph Harmon will manufacture more ridiculous allegations, such as that 96,000 ballots cast are invalid,” the PPP added.
Also expressing concern over the GECOM Chair’s letter was Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) Presidential Candidate, Lennox Shuman. During his engagement with the media, Shuman expressed concern over GECOM undertaking to ask the Police Commissioner to investigate APNU/AFC claims.
He said that based on the legal advice his party received, GECOM is acting out of its remit.
According to him, Singh never revealed to stakeholders that she had written to the Police Commissioner to have the issue investigated.
According to him, Justice Singh has shown a selective attitude towards investigating wrongdoing, since the recount has shown that Region Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo manipulated numbers to give APNU/AFC a victory, yet the Chairperson has not asked the police to investigate this. According to him, the Chairperson is going down a slippery slope.
VOLVER
