The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) succeeded in getting the names of a total of 169 backers of Local Government Elections (LGE) candidates for the Alliance For Change (AFC) in Region Six removed just before Wednesday’s deadline, according to party General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo, who has alleged that they were victims of fraud and deception.
“We hope GECOM [the Guyana Elections Commission] will take steps to remove the candidates,” Jagdeo yesterday told his weekly press conference in Queenstown, Georgetown, where he also noted that 44 sworn affidavits were refused by the Returning Officers (ROs) in the region.
The removal of the names from the lists was effected before the midnight deadline on Wednesday, based on instructions ROs would have received from the office of the Chief Election Officer (CEO), following interventions by opposition-nominated commissioners of GECOM.
Stabroek News made several attempts to contact GECOM’s public relations officer yesterday for an update on the cleansing of the lists but was unsuccessful.
In Crabwood Creek, Jagdeo said, many people were on the ground waiting for hours to get their names off the list but the RO was missing. Late in the day, he added, the RO finally accepted 36 affidavits. “Many are hardcore supporters of the PPP. Some of them are card bearing members of our party whose names were fraudulently used,” Jagdeo noted.
In Corriverton, 39 affidavits were accepted, while in Number 51 Village/ Good Hope, 43 were accepted, and in Whim/Bloomfield, 51 were accepted, he also said.
Based on reports coming out of those areas, Jagdeo said, some of the ROs were reluctant to give a receipt for the affidavits that were accepted.
In Number 52 Village to Number 74 Village, he said, 31 affidavits were refused by the RO and in Black Bush Polder, 13 affidavits were refused.
Jagdeo added that the PPP was awaiting word from GECOM to see how the issue in which people who do not want to be backers of lists, particularly of those opposing the PPP, would be dealt with. “We are following up where some of these ROs were openly partisan,” he said.
In Region Three (West Demerara/Essequibo Islands), Jagdeo said, in Tuschen, affidavits were also accepted: in Klien/Pouderoyen, six; in La Grange/Nismes, 13; in Canal Polder, 10; in La Jalousie, 13 and Patentia, four.
In the case of Whim/Bloomfield, he claimed that the RO told the people who requested that their names be removed that they “have a confrontation” with the head of the list of the candidates to prove that they did not put their names on the list.
Huge problems
If GECOM does not address this issue, Jagdeo said, “I foresee serious legal challenges. Nobody can tell a citizen that they must back a list or a candidate they do not support.”
The PPP, he said, will be more vigilant across the country. “This is not like in the past when we were a little more trusting because we have seen how a pattern has emerged.”
In terms of getting the names off the list, Jagdeo said, the PPP experienced “huge problems” with the GECOM machinery itself.
While the deadline for the removal of names and submission of new names was at midnight Wednesday night, Jagdeo claimed that some ROs informed backers of candidates that the deadline was on Tuesday. “We were a bit confused by what different ROs were saying across the country, which should not be if they are training from the same manual,” he added.
The PPP, he said, had to ask the opposition-nominated commissioners to clarify the matter at Tuesday’s statutory meeting of GECOM.
Even though the process was outlined by the CEO and the PPP had asked that the ROs be informed by letter, a copy of which the party requested, Jagdeo said, “We never received copies of letters.”
He said, “We sought to get the CEO. All day long we could not find him or his assistant. We asked the commissioners to seek him out. They could not find him.”
Not being able to contact the officials during crunch time, he said, was a matter of concern.
