Following a ruling by the Appeal Court, Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield has submitted what he claims to be a report of the “valid and credible votes” at the March 2 polls to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), showing a victory for the incumbent APNU+AFC after invalidating almost 25% of the votes cast at the March 2 polls.
It is unclear how Lowenfield determined the count but he has maintained that it is in accordance with Section 96 of the Representation of the People’s Act.
His report, the submission of which was confirmed by PPP/C-nominated elections commissioner Bibi Shadick, is based on a total of 347,509 votes, which is significantly less than the 460,295 votes that were verified by the Secretariat during the national recount process.
According to this new submission, a total of 171,825 votes were cast for the APNU +AFC compared to 166,343 for the PPP/C and 3,348 for a joinder list of new parties. As a result, with an electoral quota of 5,300, the coalition would be awarded 33 seats and the PPP/C 31 seats, and the joint list would get one seat.
It is not clear where this new figure for valid votes originates as it does not align with the numbers previously submitted by Lowenfield more than a week ago.
The recount results, which were certified by GECOM’s Secretariat, show that the PPP/C’s list of candidates has secured 233,336 votes compared to the 217,920 garnered by the incumbent APNU+AFC coalition. Under that count, the PPP/C has won the March 2 General Elections by 15,416 votes. Based on the figures, the PPP/C would have 33 seats in the new Parliament, the incumbent APNU+AFC, 31, and list of LJP, ANUG and TNM would share one seat.
In a letter attached to the report, Lowenfield states that he has “taken note of the guidance of the Court of Appeal in Eslyn David v CEO et al in the preparation of the report.”
The guidance referenced is the majority ruling issued yesterday that the words “more votes are cast” as per Article 177 (2) (b) of the Constitution of Guyana should be interpreted to mean “more valid votes are cast” in keeping with the definition of valid votes as outlined in Order 60 of 2020 (Recount Order).
Following its ruling, the court also granted a stay of its decision for three days.
As part of his summary of the observation reports generated during the recount, the CEO had previously declared that across all Electoral Districts only 185,260 votes cast could be considered valid. Of the number of votes deemed valid by Lowenfield in that report the majority was cast in favour of the incumbent as the alternative count grants the coalition 125,010 votes and the PPP/C 56,628.