During the 42-day Claims and Objections (C&O) period, nearly 18,000 objections were lodged with the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) but fewer than 400 were upheld even after more than two-thirds were withdrawn.
Sources at GECOM have indicated to Stabroek News that of the 17,964 objections lodged countrywide between October 1st and November 11th, 13,747 were withdrawn before hearings could be held to establish their legitimacy.
This meant that a significantly lower number, 4,217 made it to hearings, where a mere 395 were upheld.
This newspaper reached out to the Chief Scrutineers of the two major parties political parties for information on the number of objections each had lodged and the rationale behind same.
Up to press time, the governing APNU+AFC coalition’s Amna Ally could not be reached but Zulfikar Mustapha, of the opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) claimed that his party had made no objections.
Reminded that the leader of his party had already claimed responsibility for more than 500 objections in Region Nine, which were later withdrawn, Mustapha maintained that those were the only objections and that by the time hearings started on November 12th there were no active objections from the party.
Faizal Jafarally, PPP/C Deputy Scutineer with responsibility for Region Five has been most vocal about the thousands of “unsubstantiated objections” made by the APNU+AFC.
Speaking with Stabroek News yesterday, he claimed that over 12,000 objections were recorded in Region Five alone.
“There are two registration offices in Region Five. At Fort Wellington 9,990 objections were made by APNU+AFC and at Mahaicony about 3,800 were made,” he explained, before adding that the opposition was most concerned about the large number of objections originating from Moraikabai.
“There are 510 listed voters in this Amerindian Community and they objected to 464,” he lamented. Asked the stated reason for the objections, Jafarally noted that they related to persons whom it was felt were not qualified to be electors in that voting district.
The regulations surrounding the process of objection to a person’s name on the Official List of Electors requires that the objector’s name appear in the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE) for the relevant division/sub-division or that they be the designated party scrutineer for the area.
The objections recorded were made in the name of the party scrutineer and appear, based on testimony, to have been made based on residency.
In a live video posted to Jafarally’s Facebook page, a representative of Moraikabai could be heard telling the Registration Officer that several of the persons objected to spend most of their time in the city due to work commitments but still consider Moraikabai their home.
There was also widespread concern that a significant number of those objected to are alive, well and living in the community.
In its Saturday edition, Stabroek News published a letter from one such individual, Janaknauth Panchu, who complained that several persons, including his entire family, were served with documents to attend a hearing at the GECOM Mahaicony office to determine whether they exist.
Panchu noted that the objections were made by a Carol Joseph-Smith, a coalition scrutineer.
He claimed that the objections were an attempt to disenfranchise legitimate voters.
At the hearing held on Saturday, Joseph-Smith did not show up and all but 19 objections were thrown out, according to Jafarally.
This along with the 76 objections upheld at Fort Wellington meant that of the thousands of objections made in Region Five, only 95 were upheld.
Numbers provided by GECOM to this newspaper are similar. Sources have shared that Fort Wellington was the single location with the most objections—1,045—of which 95 were upheld.
