Leader of the Justice for All Party (JFAP) CN Sharma said he is delaying court action as it regards the parliamentary seat his party is reported to have won but is yet to be allocated, in the hope that the matter will be resolved amicably.
Sharma said he made several attempts within the last three months to speak with Guyana Elections Commission, Chairman, Dr Steve Surujbally and has been turned down. He said the treatment showed to his party by many including the elections ‘watchdogs’ indicates that some people want to brush the matter under the carpet.
After findings surfaced last year that suggest his party has won a seat Sharma called for a probe. He noted that nothing has been done with respect to the findings though glaring evidence exists that the JFAP won a seat.
Sharma told reporters on Thursday that he is holding back on approaching the courts because there is still time for the party and GECOM to sit down and talk the matter through. He said the party is still interested in finding an amicable solution to the problem. According to him, the courts would be a last resort since the matter might be dragged out.
Reiterating comments he made earlier Sharma said everyone has opted for silence on the matter including the media.
“The supporters of the JFAP were obviously not significant enough for the continued attention of the media in the face of a glaring injustice,” the JFAP leader said reading from a prepared statement.
Sharma said yesterday that he intends to keep the issue alive and will continue to press for an audience with Surujbally.
The bases for the JFAP’s claims are the errors in the results of the elections that were discovered during an analysis that was done by former GECOM Commissioner Haslyn Parris. Parris has said he found that the seat allocation should have resulted in the PPP/C with 35 seats; PNCR-1G 22; AFC 5; GAP-ROAR 1; TUF 1; and JFAP 1. He explained that his findings differed from GECOM’s officially declared results by allocating a seat to the JFAP and reducing by one the 36 seats allocated to the PPP/C. He said it also indicated that the five AFC seats should have been two from the geographical constituencies Four and Ten, and three from their top up list. Parris communicated his findings to GECOM, and afterward PNCR leader Robert Corbin called on the commission to ensure that the official results accurately reflect the will of the electorate.
Sharma has since commended Corbin for ensuring that the information was made public, and he thanked Parris for his professionalism in sharing his findings with the management of GECOM. At the same time, he noted with amazement how well-qualified members of watchdog groups, the donors and the diplomatic community allowed the country to be “bludgeoned by government and GECOM into silence as these two giants sought to justify their arithmetical errors
