The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) says it is “extremely happy” with yesterday’s decision of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to direct the Chief Election Officer to prepare a report, using the recount results, in keeping with Section 96 of the Representation of the Act, Chapter 1:03.
This the party said in a press release paves the way for the official declaration of Election Results and the swearing-in of Dr. Irfaan Ali as the ninth Executive President of Guyana.
It added that yesterday’s decision is in line with earlier expressed views that GECOM is not a court of law and therefore has no jurisdiction to hear allegations of irregularities.
The PPP noted that the Commission agreed that GECOM has no jurisdiction to annul an election, since no such power was conferred onto it under Article 162 (1) (b) of the Constitution.
“The PPP wishes to commend the GECOM Chair, retired Justice Claudette Singh, for standing on the side of rule of law and upholding the Constitution of Guyana.
“The Party wishes to congratulate Dr. Irfaan Ali, the President-Elect, and anxiously awaits his swearing-in as the ninth Executive President of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana.
“The move towards a speedy transition to a democratically elected government will allow our nation to focus on the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment and issues related to the economy, among others”, the party said.
While winning the presidency in 2011, the PPP/C held a minority in Parliament. In 2015 it lost the general elections by 4,500+ votes. The recount of the votes from the March 2nd elections has put the PPP/C head of the incumbent APNU+AFC by 15,416 votes.
