-urges Elections Commission to publicly declare ‘rationale’ behind move
The APNU+AFC coalition has voiced its concerns and disappointment with the decision taken by the Guyana Elections Commissions (GECOM) today to include the Statements of Recount (SoRs) from 29 Polling Stations between Ogle and Lusignan, East Coast Demerara, that has missing ancillary documents.
As such, in a media statement this afternoon, the coalition called upon the GECOM to publicly state the rationale behind what it deems an “inexplicable decision.”
“We have taken note that the Secretariat of GECOM is still required to investigate these matters. APNU+AFC wishes to make it clear that we do not accept a tabulated vote as a credible vote, since in the bundle of tabulated votes rests several votes which are fraudulent. Decisions raised by APNU+AFC are awaited.”
Earlier today Public Relations Officer of GECOM, Yolanda Ward, told the media that the Commission does not intend to disenfranchise any elector but the matter of the missing documents is still under investigation.
The missing ancillary documents are from several areas located on the ECD which are deemed the “People’s Progressive Party’s strongholds.”
These missing documents include counterfoils, poll books and the marked Official List of Electors (OLE).
On Saturday, during the recount and tabulation of votes process, the discrepancies were brought to the fore and the GECOM at that time had taken a decision to exclude the SoRs for those 29 ballot boxes pending further discussions and deliberations.
Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, was subsequently tasked with leading the investigation into this matter.
Additionally, on Saturday, the GECOM in a release had stated that it had conducted checks in the poll bags with the hope of recovering those missing documents searches were unsuccessful in this regard.
