Coalition campaign manager, Joseph Harmon last evening suggested that the Chief Election Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield can only submit a report for declaration on the votes he has deemed to be valid.
“No elections in Guyana can be determined on votes that are not valid…in my view, the CEO cannot declare anything other than valid votes and his determination in what are valid votes, we would need to see those reports of the CEO reflected in the way those votes are tallied,” Harmon said during a brief video statement posted to his party’s Facebook page.
His comments were a direct response to a decision by Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Claudette Singh to have the CEO prepare a report to ascertain the results of the elections under Section 96 of the Representation of the People Act, Chapter 1:03 (ROPA) and in keeping with Order No. 60 of 2020.
The Order which governs the recently concluded recount requires the CEO to tabulate matrices for the recount of the 10 Electoral Districts and submit same to the Commission while Section 96 of ROPA calls for a calculation of all “valid votes” for each list of candidates; the number of rejected ballot papers as well as the number of seats allocated to each list of candidates.
While the “certified” results of the recount show that the PPP/C’s list of candidates has secured 233,336 votes compared to the 217,920 secured by the incumbent APNU+AFC coalition, Lowenfield has said that the results were not credible.
In a summation of anomalies and irregularities observed during the recount, he concluded that the elections do not appear to satisfy the criteria of impartiality, fairness, and compliance with provisions of the Constitution and the ROPA.
“On the basis of the votes counted and the information furnished from the recount, it cannot be ascertained that the results… meet the standard of fair and credible elections,” he stated before suggesting that only 185,260 votes cast can be considered valid.
Lowenfield’s statement has been met with astonishment by the Organisation of American States and others.
The verified figure from the National Recount is 460,295 votes and shows that the PPP/C has won the March 2 General Elections by 15,416 votes.
However, of the number of votes deemed valid by Lowenfield, the majority was cast in favour of the incumbent. This alternative count grants the coalition 125,010 votes and the PPP/C 56,628.
Last evening, Harmon attempted to suggest that the Chair’s directions were not clear.
“The chair gave a very convoluted direction which still had to be interpreted so we have to see…She is going to write the CEO giving him specific instructions as to what she would like to see in a Section 96 report,” he said adding that a section 96 report requires that the CEO submits a report to chair for her declaration on valid votes cast at an election.
The chair has since sent this letter in which the CEO is asked to use the “results of the recount” to submit the report by 1 pm tomorrow.
Harmon, whose party has begun a push to have the elections annulled has argued that votes tainted by irregularities cannot be counted.
“This was the whole purpose of the recount to determine what were the valid votes cast at elections…we had a recount…if we are to say that work is not to considered even though the gazetted order require it to be so then we will have to see what the letter says but in my view the CEO cannot declare anything other than valid votes,” he reiterated.
There is no basis for ousting votes in the manner expressed by Harmon.
