A New and United Guyana (ANUG) yesterday accused rogue elements at Gecom of collaborating with APNU+AFC to have the March 2nd general elections annulled and it said the lawful course for Commission Chair Claudette Singh is to declare the winner of the polls.
In a statement following Saturday’s report from Chief Election Officer, Keith Lowenfield to Gecom that the recount of the votes does not provide a credible result, ANUG charged that APNU+AFC has created a new lie in the aftermath of the exposure of the fraud of District Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo. He had attempted to inflate results for APNU+AFC when it became clear that it could not overtake the PPP/C lead in the polls but was found out. The recount has since confirmed the fraud and has found that the opposition PPP/C has won the election.
“With the complicity of the rogue elements in the Gecom secretariat, APNU has told the Guyanese people that there were so many anomalies in the conduct of the previously fair and credible electoral process that the election must be annulled. In order to create this new deception, APNU with the complicity of the rogue Gecom secretariat evolved a five stage plan:
During the recount of the ballot box from each place of poll, APNU agents ‘alleged’ that a number of the voters from that box represented either deceased or overseas individuals. APNU gave no evidence of this, but stated that evidence would be presented at a later, unspecified date;
The Gecom official dutifully recorded on the now infamous Observation Sheet that an Allegation was made by APNU that specified voters were dead or overseas;
The Gecom official with equal consistency refused to record on the Observation Sheet the observation by any other party that no evidence was presented, that the allegation was a bare and unsubstantiated statement by a person who had no knowledge of the truth of his allegation, that Gecom’s own record showed that the individuals have appeared and shown their ID cards and been scrutinized by PPP and APNU reps and Gecom officials before being permitted to vote, and recorded only that the opposition parties ‘object to the allegation’;
The Gecom official also refused to permit any Opposition party or observer to look at the List of Electors from the box to verify whether the named individuals had in fact voted, so that that question remains unknown.
“In the meanwhile, APNU would promote the narrative that the election which had given them a victory with the Mingo Count was now not credible”, ANUG asserted.
The fifth and final stage of the plan, it said, involved the Chief Election Officer of what it termed “this rogue Secretariat”, Keith Lowenfield, who had been directed by Gecom to prepare a report showing a tabulation of the recount, and a summary of the Observation Sheets. Instead, ANUG said that Lowenfield has sought to lend credence to the nonsensical “allegations” by APNU+AFC.
ANUG, which based on the recount results will have a seat in Parliament in association with two other parties, said that the words ‘tabulation’ and ‘summary’ are not ambiguous.
“The former means in this context to add up. Lowenfield has added up the recount and the result as the whole country has known for three months is that PPP won the election by 15,000 votes, and that Mingo was guilty of fraud, and that APNU lied to the nation and to its supporters.
“But Lowenfield has not provided a summary of the Observation Sheets. A summary is a condensation, an abridgement. Lowenfield has taken it upon himself to decide that the unproven and unsubstantiated bare allegations of dead and overseas voters recorded by complicit Gecom officials on the say so of APNU representatives are evidence that the allegations are true. He has concluded that the allegations ‘were of substance’. Lowenfield concludes all by himself as if he were Gecom and not simply a functionary within the Secretariat that ‘it cannot be ascertained that the results… meet the standard of fair and credible elections’”.
ANUG charged that Gecom has replaced Mingo’s false spreadsheets with Lowenfield’s equally false opinions and conclusions.
The party, whose presidential candidate was Ralph Ramkarran, said it now remains for the GECOM Chair to decide how to treat this report.
“As a legal mind, she will know immediately that Lowenfield has exceeded his remit. She will also know that he has relied on unsubstantiated ‘allegations’. She will know that any reference to information from third parties such as (the) Immi-gration Chief and Registry records will be impermissible, since that information is external to Gecom, is untested by cross examination, is unverified by anyone, and can only be raised in an Election Petition, but may not be referenced lawfully by Gecom”, the party added.
It noted that the votes of both sides of the commission will cancel out each other and the decision will rest solely with Singh.
“The correct and lawful course of action is clear – only one party has won the elections, and the recount has unambiguously identified that party. The country waits”, ANUG said.
