Dear Editor,
As you have mentioned correctly that I am a Gecom’s Commissioner, I hope that you publish my corrections to two inaccurate statements made in two separate editions of Stabroek News.
Firstly, Sunday, August 4, I reported to Congress that 1500 delegates were qualified to attend Congress, but only 1097 delegates and 150 observers did attend.
The last part of the paragraph seemed a somewhat jumbled version of what I said. I advised the delegates that, “If you spoil your ballot, ie, by ticking more than 35 on the Central Committee list and more than 5 on the Candidate List, raise your hand, and I will examine the spoilt ballot, tear it up and give you another. For if you ticked more than 35 for the CC and then 5 on the Candidate List, I would not know which 35 or 5 to choose.”
Secondly, Monday August 5: Yes! I did report that 1599 ballots had been printed, then reported that the total votes cast were 1009, of which 13 from the CC list and 15 from the Candidate List making a total of 28 ballots were rejected ‒ not spoilt. There was only one spoilt ballot.
Maybe your reporters could not hear well from under the neighbour’s house.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamood Shaw