The APNU+AFC coalition has expressed surprise at incoming Chair of CARICOM, St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister, Ralph Gonsalves after he declared on Wednesday that the Community is expecting the winner of Guyana’s elections to be declared in accordance with the results of the National Recount.
“[The Coalition] is concerned that …Gonsalves has chosen to pronounce on a process that is still ongoing, and proposes to direct a constitutional body (GECOM) in another CARICOM Member State, in the execution of its duties,” party agent Joseph Harmon said in a statement released yesterday.
Meanwhile, the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), the largest component of the coalition rejected Gonsalves’ pronouncements and called on the sitting Chairman of CARICOM, Mia Mottley, to issue a clear statement distancing CARICOM from Prime Minister Gonsalves’ statement. Mottley’s term as Chair concludes at the end of this month.
During an appearance on NBC Radio St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ ‘Your Morning Cup,’ which was also broadcast live on Facebook, the incoming Chair said that the recount was properly done.
“We expect the CARICOM observer mission to deliver its report and we expect that what is the recount would be honoured and the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) will honour that recount and declare the winner in accordance with this recount,” he explained, adding that CARICOM will not stand by idly and watch the results be set aside.
Gonsalves, who said CARICOM would not “tolerate anybody stealing an election,” added that anybody who wants to challenge anything afterwards can go to court.
“But you have to declare the winner in accordance with the recount,” he stressed.
Gonsalves was part of a CARICOM delegation that was led here by CARICOM Chairperson and Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley in March to help resolve the crisis that arose after the controversy over the tabulation of the District Four vote count led to an impasse.
The recount shows that the opposition PPP/C won the elections but the incumbent APNU+AFC has claimed that numerous irregularities it has uncovered discredit the outcome.
Harmon in responding to the Gonsalves comments noted that the 73-year-old who has led his country for 19 years is currently embroiled in an Election Petition. He expressed surprise that Gonsalves would take a public position that is “prejudicial to the integrity of the process and its eventual outcome.”
Harmon reminded that the recount exercise is a four-staged process, the first of which is the just concluded tabulation phase.
“The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is currently engaged in the second stage of the exercise, in which the CEO is required to compile a matrix of the tabulated results along with a summary of the Observation Reports,” he stressed, before reiterating his party’s claims that the reports have recorded some 7,929 instances of irregularities which directly affect the validity of 257,173 votes.
Multiple voting
The APNU+AFC despite evidence to the contrary has continued to claim that votes from disciplined service members were not counted and that there were numerous cases of multiple voting since persons who died or were out of the jurisdiction on March 2 cast ballots.
They have also called on the Commission to invalidate nearly 7,000 votes cast in 29 polling places for which verification documentation is still to be found.
The Commission has launched an investigation into what happened at these polling places on the lower East Coast of Demerara. It is expected that the results of this investigation will also be reflected in the report from Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield.
Four days after the tabulation exercise was completed, Lowenfield and the rest of the secretariat have been quiet as he ostensibly prepares to submit his reports by tomorrow.
Also expected by tomorrow is a report from the three-person CARICOM Scrutineering Team which observed the process.
Meanwhile the Coalition has stressed that the ongoing recount process is significant and important not only for democracy in Guyana, but the wider CARICOM.
“It is to be expected that CARICOM leaders would refrain from any actions or utterances that could undermine the legitimacy of the process and it credible conclusion,” Harmon concluded.
After having claimed victory at the March 2nd elections and insisting that the incumbent David Granger be sworn in for a new term, APNU+APNU has changed its tune and now claims massive fraud and says that a credible result is no longer possible from the election. None of the other parties that contested the polls agree with it and all observer missions that were here for the elections have said that the process ran smoothly and the only problem was the tabulation for District Four by Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo which produced fictional results in favour of APNU+AFC. A PPP/C approach to the courts eventually saw an agreement for a recount of all votes in the presence of CARICOM observers. The mission was aborted when an APNU+AFC candidate went to court to block it. This prompted Mottley to say that there appeared to be forces here who do not want to see the votes counted. A recount finally got underway on May 6th and ended 33 days later. The country is still awaiting a final result.
For the PNCR the statements are more than prejudicial. It claimed that Gonsalves’ comments are “a direct interference into the affairs of a sovereign nation and more particularly the work of an independent Constitutional agency, GECOM.”
“Gonsalves’s direct appeal to influence the CARICOM Observation Team whose report will form part of documents for GECOM’s consideration, is a blatant attack on the integrity of the CARICOM team; highly prejudicial and serves only to undermine CARICOM’s efforts at being professional in arriving at a final credible process,” the PNCR added.
The plain-speaking Gonsalves also said on the radio programme: “St. Vincent and the Grenadines stands firmly for democracy and reflecting the will of the people so that will tell you where we are. I don’t have to say anything more straight and plain. CARICOM is not going to tolerate anybody stealing any elections. I know a lot of opposition parties when they win, when they lose sorry …they say `oh so and so thief so and so this’. Now it’s almost a boring repetition. We get the reports, follow the law, and who wins wins. When you take part in an elections there’s always a chance that you may lose and if you lose as Sir Louisy said, you take your licks like a man.”
