General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday charged that the governing A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) is “mortally” afraid of the recount of votes of Region 4 and has blamed them for the constant delaying of the process.
“…Clearly they are trying to stage something…….they will try to undermine the integrity of those boxes and the containers. They are mortally afraid of the recount. Everyone have been saying let’s do the recount and wherever the chips fall people have to accept the results,” Jagdeo said last evening.
He was at the time addressing a press conference which was held at Freedom House, Robb Street.
The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) in a statement yesterday said that following a request by President David Granger, arrangements are in place for the recount of the votes from the March 2nd General and Regional elections under CARICOM’s supervision.
However, it said that it was awaiting a signed agreement between Presi-dent David Granger and Jagdeo and CARICOM.
Jagdeo said he has reviewed the agreement and he doesn’t have any issue with it. Up to last evening, he was awaiting a response from Chairperson of CARICOM, Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley on the way forward.
The Arthur Chung Conference Centre has been selected as the venue for the recount to be conducted.
Up to late last evening the process had not begun. There were several delays with one of the latest being the fumigation of the premises for cockroaches and mosquitoes.
“Tonight just after CARICOM had selected, a CARICOM team jointly with the commission had selected the Convention Centre for the recount, this afternoon…..another team was called to fumigate the convention centre from mosquitoes and roaches. So they can’t use the Convention Centre and turn off all the lights…So you don’t have lights in the Convention Centre, the yard is dark and the containers are there, that has been moved there and now they are trying to get people out of the compound,” Jagdeo lamented.
He said Minister of Public Health Volda Lawrence who is an elections agent for APNU and others showed up at the location and GECOM Commissioner Robeson Benn was told that he could not witness the movement of the containers.
“….Her counterparts in GECOM led by Roxanne Myers showed up and said to Robeson Benn, a commissioner at GECOM who is appointed in accordance with the constitution of Guyana that he cannot watch the containers that are being moved from GECOM head office to the Convention Centre,” Jagdeo said.
He further related that the police arrived last evening and they were told that they needed to clear the premises. “….Not just the commissioner but many of our leaders who have been there waiting for the recount to start out of the compound. Not out of the building but they are in the yard of the massive compound of the convention centre,” Jagdeo said.
“That along with another incident that took place this afternoon (yesterday) leads me to believe that somehow, something is afoot….they know that the moment the recount is done in Region 4, then the truth about the fraudulent acts will be revealed and so many are fighting to prevent that from happening that’s why you see the frustration of the CARICOM agreement, then this attempt to move people away from those boxes not to secure the containers tonight,” he added.
Despite this, Jagdeo said the party will be keeping a watch on the containers containing the ballots all evening.
“They can’t prevent us from being outside so we are going to have a vigil outside. We are going to be watching those containers even from afar…We will have people all around so that they can’t damage the integrity of the boxes. This is clearly a plot unfolding once again to steal the elections and it’s not over. We know it’s not over because every step of the way there is a big fight,” Jagdeo added.
Jagdeo has called on Chairperson of GECOM Justice (re’td) Claudette Singh to “step up” and put an end to the fiasco.
He said he has also informed Mottley and other CARICOM heads of the situation. “So if there is an escalation, then the entire region will know,” he said.
