Campaign Co-Chair of the APNU+AFC Coalition, Joseph Harmon yesterday doubled down on claims that the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections were riddled with fraud before contending that the three-person scrutinizing team from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) will in their report determine the credibility of the entire elections.
“They are bearing witness firsthand to these revelations coming out every single day as these boxes are opened… the CARICOM mission will help us to determine whether in fact valid votes were cast and if what we are seeing is the will of the Guyana people,” Harmon told selected media at a “press conference” broadcast on the National Communication Network.
The former Minister of State has contended that the credibility of over 90,000 votes remain in question because of a variety of fraudulent practices including unstamped disciplined services votes, misuse of the Oath of Identity and voting by dead or migrant electors. He stressed that his party will push to have the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) make a decision on its complaints while delivering an ultimatum to the seven-member constitutional agency.,
“We will have to get a decision from GECOM on this matter and we are serving notice that we expect a decision by GECOM on these matters by the end of Friday, June 5, 2020. They must say to us how they will treat with these matters. It is very important,” Harmon stressed.
The recount of all of the ballot boxes is expected to be concluded on Sunday. Harmon and the incumbent APNU+AFC have not been able to explain how they have moved from initially claiming victory at the elections to alleging that there has been massive fraud.
He continued to make claims yesterday of unstamped and uncounted Disciplines Services (DS) votes even as it has been shown that Guyana’s electoral practices make it impossible for DS to be distinguished from other votes once intermixed.
Additionally an examination of those polling stations used for the intermixing of DS ballots show that very few ballots were rejected for “want of official mark”.
Harmon has also claimed that hundreds of person who were not in Guyana on March 2 are recorded as voting on that day. His party has submitted three lists of names to GECOM Chair Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh of those whom they contend were not in Guyana on polling day.
“We want to ensure that the validity of every vote that was cast on March 2 can stand up to the test and that test is that it was validly cast by persons who were entitled to vote on that day,” he explained.
With each passing day more of those persons identified are stepping forward to state that not only were they in Guyana but that they cast ballots on their own behalf.
Susan Natasha Naraine of Kuru Kuru is one of 10 who declared yesterday that they are in Guyana currently, were in Guyana on March 2 and cast a ballot on that day.
Naraine appears as elector number 93 on a list of 172 submitted to Singh by Police Commissioner Leslie James.
According to the list, Naraine left Guyana on September 16, 2017 and did not return before Election Day.
Also coming forward were Anthony Persaud, Zahid Baksh, Dhanwantie Singh, Pardasie Balram, Mohamed Ali, Khaawtie Naipaul and Chairam Bharrat. The wives of Otis Jaigobin and Rameshwar Paul have also stepped forward to declare that their husbands now in “working in the interior” were in Guyana and voted on their own behalf.
Despite these testimonies Harmon continued to claim that his party has been able to confirm that 90% of those on the various lists submitted were not in Guyana.
He has accused the People’s Progressive Party/Civic of the selective extraction of one or two names from the list in an attempt to refute the claims while maintaining that “it cannot change the fact that a vast number of these persons (several hundreds) voted.”
He further accused the opposition of attacking the Immigration Department of the Guyana Police Force and contended that “PPP elements” on GECOM are causing a delay in its deliberation on issues raised by the party.
