Preliminary results show that the APNU+AFC alliance has won the May 11th elections by a margin of just over 5,000 votes but President Donald Ramotar yesterday refused to concede that his PPP/C had lost, while saying the process was rigged and demanding a manual recount of all ballots.
According to the results released by the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) just after noon yesterday, the opposition coalition won the elections with 206,817 votes to the PPP/C’s 201,457 votes, reflecting a difference of 5,360.
The announcement triggered widespread celebration by the coalition supporters and some staged an impromptu parade through Georgetown’s streets, braving the rain as they waved and danced with alliance flags and posters.
Despite the release of the preliminary results, no official declaration was made yesterday by Gecom. The official declaration, which could be done today, would pave the way for the swearing in of alliance presidential candidate David Granger.
At the announcement of the results at Gecom’s Command Centre at Kingston, Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield said he did not expect any “significant” variance between the preliminary results and the final results after the reconciliation of Statements of Poll by the Returning Officers (ROs) in all 10 electoral districts. “All things being equal, we are supposed to be singing from the same song sheet. If there is any variance, in my humble view that variance would not be significant,” Lowenfield said.
The results showed that 410,391 of the over 570,000 registered electors voted, representing an increase of 68,000 over the turnout at the 2011 elections. The PPP/C won over 35,100 more votes than it did in 2011, while APNU+AFC, which had previously contested as separate campaigns, polled over 31,800. However, both APNU and AFC had in total received more votes at the 2011 elections than the PPP/C, which prevented it from winning a parliamentary majority although it retained the presidency. From this year’s results, it is believed that the coalition has won 33 of the 65 seats in the National Assembly, the same amount that APNU and AFC combined to win in 2011.
In a last minute bid to stop the release of the results, President Ramotar had invited the heads of the western missions to Office of the President to discuss the PPP/C’s concerns about the electoral process but they declined to attend.
US Embassy Chargé d’ Affaires Bryan Hunt and British High Commissioner Greg Quinn decided against acceding to the request since they were not in favour of party business being discussed at a governmental level.
“The United States decided that it would not be appropriate for us to attend that meeting because we do not believe that we should be confusing the lines between government and political party at a very sensitive time in Guyana’s election,” Hunt said minutes before the preliminary results were announced. He added that the embassy was willing to continue to meet with the PPP/C at its office.
The two missions subsequently issued statements maintaining that the country’s elections were free and fair and that they believe that at the end of the process the commission would deliver results that would accurately reflect the way Guyanese voted on May 11th.
Before the invitation to the mission heads, the PPP/C, in a memorandum sent to the Diplomatic Community, cited claims of rigging. However, the US Embassy subsequently said that it looked at those allegations but found nothing contained therein changed its baseline assessment of the electoral process.
According to Lowenfield, the official declaration would be preceded by the reconciliation of all Statements of Polls (SoPs) by the ROs along with the party agents and once satisfied the officers would then make their declaration in their respective districts.
“Once the Returning Officers in their respective districts would have declared their results, parties can by noon of the following day request a recount of those declared results in the respective districts…,” he said, while indicating that the ROs were expected to make their declarations by the end of yesterday.
Once such a request is made and it is found to be reasonable, Lowenfield said this could then affect the timeliness of the official declaration.
Lowenfield could not say if a court injunction can stop the declaration.
‘I will not concede’
Shortly after the preliminary results were broadcast, President Ramotar told a press briefing at the PPP’s Freedom House headquarters that he could not concede that he lost the elections and called for a recount of all votes cast.
“I cannot concede that I lost this election,” Ramotar said.
He did not clearly indicate what would be his party’s next move but did not rule out a court challenge. The PPP/C had on Tuesday night requested a recount of regions 1, 2 and 8 but by Wednesday morning it called for partial recounts in all regions. As a result, the commission only released 78% of the preliminary results on Wednesday night.
Yesterday Lowenfield said while recounts were done in regions 1 and 2, the ROs of the other regions did not accede to requests for recounts in their regions as they did not see the basis for them based on the reason given by the PPP/C. He said the recount in those two regions saw no numerical change in the final numbers for the parties.
Lowenfield said if another request for a recount is made, the same process would be followed but when questioned he could not say what would occur next if the ROs maintain the same position. He said if the request is made over and over again, the commission would have to make a determination as to the next move.
One of the issues raised by the PPP/C with the Diplomatic Corps was the appearance of fake SoPs and when questioned Lowenfield acknowledged that he had made “fair and frank observations to the commission.”
Gecom Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally reveal that Lowenfield alerted the commission to the fact that there were SoPs that did not emanate from GECOM.
“As the Statement of Polls came into the commissioners, we were able to pick up those statements immediately—that this is wrong, this paper is not the right one,” he said.
He added that the fake statements were not of a significant number so as to disturb but noted that it is a great chance, especially since the polls show a closeness between the two major campaigns, that such issues tend to become great “consequential information” that must be dealt with.
It was later disclosed that the SoPs amounted to about 33 and emanated from all ten administrative regions and reflected just about 300 votes that were not eventually included in the final tally. The SoPs used by Gecom have certain security features, Lowenfield said, which led him to quickly discerning the fake ones. With their discovery, he noted that he instructed that the ROs prepare new ones, which is within the ambit of the law.
How those SoPs got among the others is being investigated. “I am sure that with my limited investigative skills I would come up with something for the commission in a short order,” Lowenfield said.
Surujbally said that he was shocked at such evil that would make a person make such a move to create fake SoPs, knowing the possible repercussion on the nation. “It is a terrible, most reprehensive thing to attempt and of course it goes nowhere but it goes their way by those who want to make an issue out of something that was captured and stopped…,” he said, before adding that company that produced the SoPs is one the commission was worked with for many decades and is tested and proven.
Saying that he was pleased that the public at large had exhibited great tolerance and understanding, Surujbally noted that the electoral system does nurture and “make possible obstacles which stymie the smooth flow from the announcement of E-day to the final declaration.”
