By Radha Motielall
[www.inewsguyana.com] – Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield has reported that the recounts which had commenced were completed and that there was no change to the numbers.
He said other districts in which recounts were requested, the Returning Officers (RO) has since informed the Party that made the request, where they did not consider application favourable and they have already responded to the Party that they will not be agreeing to the recount.
The CEO was then asked what if the ROs maintain their position in the face of another request for recount, to which he responded that “I am not sure if they deny, legally what next.”
The Chief Elections Officer was also asked to explain himself in relation to the PPP/C questioning why he [Lowenfield] did not indicate to them why their request for recount was denied.
In response, he explained that he was written to and told to recount a number of boxes, with no reason being stated as to why such was being asked. He said in keeping with the communication he received, he responded in like manner denying the request, with no explanation.
On the issue of false Statements of Poll (SOPs), the Chief Elections Officer said these are being deliberated on at the level of the commission. And on this note Chairman of GECOM, Dr. Steve Surujbally said the CEO was lauded for finding the anomalies and highlighting them, and therefore he will address and fix them.
He recalled that as the SOPs came in, the Commissioners we were able to pick up that they were fake ones. The SOPs were printed by a Canadian company with a number of security features.
GECOM meanwhile stressed that the fake SOPs were not counted. In addition the media was told that the number of fake SOPs was not of that great quantum so as to disturb the outcome of the election.
Dr Surujbally further questioned what would make a person do such a reprehensible thing, which he stressed will absolutely go nowhere. However, he also accepted that it might go “there where, by those who want to make an issue.”
The Chairman added that given the close race, he can understand the importance being given to the need for checks and balances. And for this he is asking that trust be placed in the CEO to fix the anomalies.
International observers are being held in high regard. It baffles me how they can prematurely unanimously put a stamp of “fair and credible” when referring to the elections only one day after the elections. Perhaps they should have been more specific and say the voting process gets the stamp; definitely premature to give thumbs up to the entire process: clearly the mere fact we here terminology like “fake” associated with official documents related to the tabulation of results, then we must think. I guess many have put their foot in their mouth. So much for credibility.
How did the person get the specimen of the SOP, had to be sum1 from GECOME leak that out…Who finance the person to do that……how did the person get the fake SOP to enter into the polling station… what kind of wick people are working at GECOME….this is definitely not a free and fair election.
Fake SOPS? And they are saying no fraud! Where did they come from? Who sent them? What action is being taken against those who are responsible? Recount demanded is justified
What are the international observers saying about fake SOP’s ?
Am I hearing that GEOCOM is confirming that in fact fake SOP’s were in operation ? Aha ! So then the PPP/C was/is correct to stand their ground ? Then we can logically conclude that the international observers acted pre maturely ? Or can we draw the conclusion that they developed impatience to wrap up their mission and became impatient with the PPP/C’s findings ?
let PPP\C win the election
Let Gecom check and see who the fake SOPs would have favored, remember it was rumored that a certain ex minister was printing ballots and SOPs
fishy fishy