The Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) yesterday released results from its recent elections indicating that incumbent Patrick Yarde has been re-elected as president for another term, while his lone challenger Gregory Gaspar and his supporters last evening said they were still awaiting a formal declaration despite their concerns about the integrity of the process.
Elections Officer Herman De Souza, in a signed press release issued by the GPSU, yesterday released a scanned copy of stamped executive council elections results listing Yarde’s name first with 1,024 votes, with Gaspar behind at 842 votes, from last Thursday’s voting.
But at a press conference held last evening, Gaspar voiced his confusion over the results circulated in the media although no formal declaration had been made by De Souza.
Around midday, just a few hours before the results were released, Gaspar had still been quite confident about his footing in the race, and had commented that while Yarde was entitled to his views claiming victory in the race, the numbers showed differently.
During the emergency press conference called last night after the results were released, Gaspar recalled that they had been at GPSU’s headquarters yesterday awaiting word from De Souza. He stated that De Souza left the premises, and shortly after he received a call informing him that the results of the elections had been released to the media.
The results listed the candidates that had vied for positions on the executive council, but failed to specify the positions for which they would have contested. As a result, persons nominated for several positions, such as Gaspar, had their names appear twice on the list twice. Gaspar’s name appeared under Yarde’s with 842 votes, and then near the bottom of the list with 476 votes.
The notice board up to yesterday carried only seven statements of poll for the reported 19 ballot boxes. Those did not carry the names of the corresponding institutions at which the voting took place, but rather, only listed the numbers of the ballot boxes.
A claim was made that there had been an extra ballot box at the union hall, but this was unconfirmed.
At the GPSU headquarters yesterday, Stabroek News visited shortly after the press release was sent out and persons there related that De Souza had already left. Posted on the notice board upstairs, however, was an identical copy of the results sent out to the press.
Jermaine Hermanstyne, a supporter of team Gaspar, said that they will not be giving any credence to the information being circulated in the press as there had been no formal declaration of the results. Furthermore, they had been told that such a declaration would be made today.
Another Gaspar supporter, Unata DeFreitas called the statement of the results “comical” and likened it to the state the GPSU had been reduced to.
“We looked at the listing and it basically told us the candidates and they had a list of names so we wanna know what does that really represent? Is it that all of those persons contested the position of President of the Guyana Public Service Union? Because if you were to do the math, you will come up with Gregory Gaspar as the leading person in that listing,” DeFreitas, who contested for the position of 2nd Vice President on Gaspar’s team, said.
Her colleague, Gordon Nestor, who ran for the post of 3rd Vice President, stated that the figures cannot be valid without the corresponding statements of poll, which were never released. Also never received were the final list of electors for the corresponding areas.
“Public servants by and large have made a statement, they are no longer satisfied with what Patrick Yarde is providing in terms of leadership and management for their union. Mr Yarde needs to take cognisance of the fact that not only did they vote against him in large numbers, but they also did not turn up for their May Day parade as they usually do… further to that, the staff of many of the organisations, the members by and large have said they will withdraw their dues from the public service union if he is returned as President,” Beatrice Roberts-Austin, a union member, had commented yesterday afternoon.
‘Political involvement’
In a May Day statement that was issued on Monday, Yarde, who has been at the helm of the union for over two decades, signaled that there was interference in the election process.
“Our tenure of renewal in office as an Executive being due in 2017 action was taken in accordance with our rules correctly and transparently to comply with this process in a most cost effective and professional manner. While we were alerted and sensitive to certain irritants, we eventually recognized there was a massive political and other involvement in our elections process with a clear and determined assignment to create multiple divisions in the rank of our members and to discredit and decapitate the leadership of the Union,” he said.
The statement added that the interference saw the disruption of the counting of votes and undermining the credibility of the election process. “The instances of unprofessional, unethical conduct, overwhelming dishonesty and a vicious campaign to dislodge the serving leaders were evident and abominable. It is clear to your Union’s leaders that we are faced with a situation to defend ourselves from an attacking element that we helped to create in the fight for justice, however unfortunate,” Yarde said. “We are confident that we can overcome this unwarranted assault, it has somewhat fragmented our Union in an undesirable manner.
However, we will not allow this misfortune to restrain our struggle for progress nor discourage us,” he added.
Last Tuesday, the GPSU announced its intention to hold its elections on Thursday, after an injunction barring it from proceeding until financial statements were submitted, was discharged by Justice Nareshwar Harnanan.
However, the elections process has been marred by conflict over discrepancies in the process, which has seen the police being called in multiple times during the tallying.
Unofficial results which were posted on the notice board by the Elections Officer on Saturday night showed that Gaspar was in the lead with 542 votes, while Yarde was at 155 votes from seven ballot boxes that were so far counted.
Gaspar had stated that they were awaiting the results of statements of poll from 12 other ballot boxes that were already counted by the elections officials. He said that they were told by De Souza that they will receive those results today.
Meanwhile, the union is still set to attend court on May 10 to answer to an action alleging that the executive had failed to properly manage the union in accordance with its rules.
The action has called for the Yarde-led council to be suspended until it could produce the Treasurer’s reports and/or the Auditor General’s reports for 2004 to 2017.
