Vice Chairman of APNU Dr Rupert Roopnaraine said that Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) Dr Steve Surujbally has offered to make available the hard copies of Statements of Poll should this become necessary to satisfy the party’s need to have all certainty that the elections count is beyond reproach.
Roopnaraine, in an interview with Stabroek News yesterday, said the Gecom Chairman assured him that the hard copies would be available at Gecom for perusal and that he would make arrangements to have them examined there if necessary.
“We have not taken up the option at this time,” said Roopnaraine, while adding that the party has not yet found it necessary to do so. But he said APNU would gladly take up the offer once it is deemed a necessity to look at the hard copies.
Gecom had supplied to the contesting political parties of the 2011 election, copies of the SOPs in electronic format and since almost two weeks ago when they were handed over, those parties began the process of verification of the polling statements to ensure that they accorded with what the parties’ polling day staff took from the polling stations.
He said APNU was pressing to get done with the analyses of the results and the process requires the assistance of the Electoral Assistance Bureau (EAB) in terms of the final analysis.
He said another meeting of the parties is arranged tentatively for December 30.
The demand for Gecom to release the SOPs for verification was one of the main reasons APNU took to the streets and protested, which led to a series of events culminating with the shooting with rubber bullets of protesters and their arrest and subsequent placing before the courts.
Since that time, the momentum is being carried by the youth arm of APNU, the Youth Coalition for Transformation (YCT) which in addition to wielding the weapon of protest has called for an economic boycott of some entities.
Its members have been calling for people to spend only what is necessary and to invest in the future of their children and themselves through the purchase of books.
