Despite today’s ruling by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), caretaker President David Granger is still insisting that there was widespread fraud in the March 2nd general elections and that the matter will now have to be finally decided by GECOM.
Granger’s stance puts the pressure on GECOM Chair Claudette Singh who has already said that the recount result is what shall be declared. The recount result shows a win for the PPP/C.
A statement issued by David Granger today follows:
“Our party, our partnership and our Coalition are committed to the rule of law. The CCJ has not allowed the position that our Court of Appeal has taken but it means that the matter will now have to go back to the Election Commission. So the matter is not closed, it now has to go back to the Election Commission. We all have to be patient. We all went out on the 2nd of March, March passed, April passed, May passed, June passed and now we’re in July. It is the first time this has happened in the history of our country and it has happened because there are some bad elements out there who tried to manipulate the vote by having votes recorded for dead people (and) people who had migrated, more votes in a polling station than they had electors. We know all of the faults, our party, our partnership and our coalition has been bringing these complaints of abuses and irregularities to the attention of the public and also to the attention of the court. (The CCJ) has made no coercive orders, that means they have not given any instructions to what GECOM is empowered under the laws of Guyana to do. We will have to assess the situation in which we are in now. The matter will go back to the Election Commission but as far as we are concerned we have evidence that there has been massive fraud and irregularities and we will continue the fight to make sure that your votes are counted.”
