The People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/Civic) will be lobbying for broader definitions and stiffer penalties for elections offences, according to Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, who says false information was discovered on more than half of the candidates’ lists that were recently submitted for the upcoming local government elections.
Jagdeo was speaking at a press conference yesterday at Freedom House on Robb Street, George-town, where he charged that false information was found on the lists for 42 out of the 80 Local Authority Areas (LAAs) submitted last Friday by the Alliance for Change (AFC), A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), and the United Republican Party (URP).
“We have observed that from our internal information over the last several days that in 42 of the 80 areas either APNU, AFC or the URP have forged signatures or have misled people into signing the backers’ list. We are finding, now, people who said ‘I never signed a document’ or they were saying that they signed [they] believed it was for something else,” Jagdeo explained, while adding that as a result, his party will be requesting that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) look at areas where it can strengthen penalties for transgressions of the law, not just for the Returning Officers (ROs) and other GECOM officials but also for parties contesting in the elections.