Five days after hundreds of thousands voted in general elections, the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) is expected to this afternoon to sanctify the official results, allowing for the swearing in of David Granger as the new President.
While all of its 10 Returning Officers (ROs) had finally signed off on Statements of Polls (SoPs) yesterday, Gecom chose to go stick within the letter of the law, which says contesting parties can raise objections up to noon of the day after the final declarations are made. That being said, the commission did not make it clear whether it would make the official declaration after noon today but said it would advise on the next stage.
It is possible that if the PPP/C does lodge a formal objection to the results and asks for a recount that Gecom could disallow the request and proceed with the official declaration. With the PPP/C continuing to insist that the elections have been rigged there is also speculation that there may be legal moves afoot to further stall the process. However, opposition alliance members yesterday indicated that plans were underway for Granger’s swearing in this afternoon at the Public Buildings at 1PM.
With Gecom’s preliminary results on Thursday showing it losing the elections and the presidency by 5,360 votes, the PPP/C yesterday said it had officially requested a countrywide recount.
Contacted by Stabroek News, Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield pointed out that the request has to be made to the offices of the ten ROs. In accordance with their powers, some ROs had previously rejected PPP/C requests for recounts.
In 2011, though APNU had raised several issues claiming that the elections process was not free and fair, Gecom went ahead and declared the results and President Ramotar was administered the oath four days after the votes were cast. Now, more than five days after they voted, Guyanese are yet to be even told who officially won the elections even though the coalition supporters and their leaders have already begun to celebrate their apparent victory.
Some of the issues that were raised by Granger in 2011 were that then Presidential advisor Odinga Lumumba and Press Laision Officer Kwame McKoy had gone to many polling stations and behaved inappropriately. He also cited the discovery of seals of ballot boxes and people being denied to vote. Granger had also said that there were ballot boxes whose numbers were not consistent with the listed numbers. The partnership had then demanded a verification of all the signed Statements of Poll. This request went nowhere.
Gecom, in a press statement yesterday- it held no press conference yesterday though it had been holding these since Monday – said that while it is aware of the anxiety that prevails at this time for the declaration of the results, it “is constrained by the legal requirements, which it has to observe.”
“Relative to the process of declaring the results, those results have now been declared by the respective Returning Officers for the ten Electoral Districts. However, parties may raise objections by midday of the day after the last of the ten declarations,” it added.
It further said that since the last declaration was made yesterday morning, it has to wait until noon today before it can make a final declaration. “This is the law,” the commission added.
The public was asked to bear with the commission until midday today “before it advises on the next stage of the declaration of results.”
‘Obstacles’
This move by the commission has been strongly objected to by the presumed winner of the elections APNU+AFC -whose officials met with the commission shortly after it had also conferred with members of the PPP/C. APNU+AFC insisted that Gecom make the official declaration of the results, after which any challenge to them by the PPP/C could be made by way of an election petition to the High Court.
“It is our view that obstacles are being put in the way of the commission making a final declaration. We are calling on the commission to identify this as mischief and make a declaration,” executive member of the coalition Dr Rupert Roopnaraine told reporters yesterday, minutes after exiting the commission’s office.
In a subsequent statement on television, Roopnaraine said the coalition wants the swearing in of the new President to occur immediately after the formal declaration of the result.
However, the PPP/C yesterday maintained that the election was rigged and that all Statements of Poll must be recounted even though it hasn’t provided evidence to substantiate fraud. The ruling party also continues to face mounting international and local pressure to accept the elections results.
The United States, the United Kingdom and Canada issued another joint statement yesterday reiterating their “strong and considered opinion” that the voting and tabulation processes at Monday’s elections were “free, fair, and credible.”
The Guyana Bar Association, the Guyana Association of Women Lawyers, the Transparency Institute of Guyana Inc. and the Justice Institute of Guyana, in a joint statement, the Private Sector Commission, and the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry all added their voices through press statements calling on President Donald Ramotar and the PPP/C to accept the results of the elections.
On Thursday afternoon, the commission announced preliminary results showing the opposition coalition won the elections with 206,817 votes to the PPP/C’s 201,457 votes, reflecting a difference of 5,360.
Shortly after this announcement, President Ramotar said “I cannot concede that I lost this election” and announcing that his campaign was demanding a recount. This statement came after a last-minute bid by Ramotar to convince the Western missions that there were many irregularities failed. The heads of the missions declined to attend a meeting at the Office of the President to discuss the PPP/C’s concerns as they were not in favour of party business being discussed at a governmental level.
One of the issues that is repeatedly being raised by the PPP/C is the appearance of bogus Statements of Poll, which was brought to the attention of the commission by CEO Lowenfield.
Gecom Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally on Thursday had said that the fake statements were not of a significant number so as to disturb. He, however, noted that since the preliminary count shows a closeness between the two major campaigns such issues tend to become great “consequential information” that must be dealt with. It was later disclosed that the statements 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.
