Opposition leader Bharrat Jagdeo is calling for an international probe to determine the origin of the fake Statement of Polls (SoPs) that were discovered during the last elections.
Jagdeo’s call was made yesterday and came in wake of Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) Chairman Dr. Steve Surujbally’s recent declaration that it would be “impossible to prove” who placed the false SoPs. “I couldn’t see why we would proceed with an investigation,” he told Stabroek News. “There is simply no proof. The circumstantial evidence still remains, but circumstantial evidence could not be used in a court of law.”
At a press conference at Freedom House yesterday, Jagdeo reaffirmed his lack of confidence in Surujbally, while noting that police should have been called in the minute the both he and Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield got wind of the fraudulent SoPs.
“Any attempt to subvert the will of our people, according to our election laws, is a criminal matter,” Jagdeo said, while noting that the police force is the only body authorised to deal with such matters.
However, he noted that even if the commission decides to seek the police’s assistance, investigations may not be transparent as there is the possible risk of interference by Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan.
“If he [Surujbally] wanted to find out the truth, let us get a group to come in from abroad to find out where the fake SoPs came from.
If they say they can’t determine that, we will believe them but we don’t believe Surujbally. We think he is a part of the problem… we do not have any confidence in him,” Jagdeo noted.
Jagdeo’s statements were echoed in a press release issued earlier in the day by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), which said Surujbally’s comments are a “reflection of Gecom’s gross incompetence” and an indictment of the organisation’s “inability to conduct a free and fair elections unless there are reforms of Gecom’s machinery.”
“If Mr. Surujbally does not value the vote by each elector then this is most unfortunate and reaffirms the loss of confidence the PPP has publicly expressed in him as Head of Gecom,” the release said.
“…If there are persons in Gecom’s employ who sought to corrupt the system with the fake SoPs with the intention of generating incorrect results to thwart the will of the electorate, then this confirms the long held view of the PPP that there is an urgent need for an overhaul of Gecom’s machinery as one of the several elections reforms that must be addressed in the not too distant future,” it added.
Surujbally had said while there is no further investigation in the matter, it did not mean that the hierarchy in Gecom did not have an idea who the culprits were.
He also said the revelation by Lowenfield that 33 SoPs were believed to be forgeries came as such a shock.
“The truth of the matter is that nobody would have ever thought that something like that would happen, but it did happen and that is sickening,” he added.
The Chairman said that among his counterparts throughout the region there was disbelief that there was such a brazen attempt to malign the political process.
He said that within the next week Gecom will be meeting and possible changes to the security measures will be discussed and addressed.
The Chairman added that the commission must be above the political fray, although in Guyana this is difficult given the partisan dynamics at play. He did note that the feedback from the various observer groups pointed to a need to change the group formula, but did not say whether or not this was being contemplated.
Just after the May 11th elections the PPP had heavily lobbied for an investigation into the false SoPs and the issue dominated post-election press conferences held by the party.
