Despite questioning the credibility of the Region One results, A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) through an agent certified the results on Sunday. Moreover, People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) agent, Anil Nandlall said that should the coalition refuse to cooperate, the process can continue without their signature.
The Region One results, showing that the PPP gained 16,018 total votes (General and Regional) compared to APNU/AFC’s 7744, was signed off by coalition agent Daniel Seeram. Persons signing off also included PPP’s Dr Frank Anthony and Liberty and Justice Party’s (LJP) Lennox Shuman. Their certification includes an acknowledgement that the votes were validly cast.
In the certified Region One results, PPP gained 8002 votes in the General Elections and 7996 votes in Regional, while APNU/AFC was shown to have gained 3909 in General and 3843 in Regional Elections.
Back on March 3, 2020, Region One Returning Officer Trevor Harris had declared that PPP gained 8022 votes in General and 7996 votes in Regional. On the other hand, he had declared that APNU/AFC gained 3905 votes in General and 3839 in the Regional Elections.
In an interview with the media, Nandlall dismissed the claims of fraud being made by APNU/AFC agents including Aubrey Norton and pointed to President David Granger’s pledge to abide by the results. Moreover, he pointed to the fact that their own agents certified the results.
“The same thing as Election Day is happening. Their polling agents signed on to the Statements of Poll. Now the officers in the tabulation centre are signing off. And you still have commentary outside of that. They can’t get their act together,” he said.
“One signs on to a document because one accepts it. Now, not because you have not signed on, it means that your absence of your signature affects the validity of the document. You can’t unreasonably refuse to sign and then say the document is invalid.”
Nandlall noted that as per legal principles, any APNU/AFC refusal to participate will not impact the process by delaying the declaration of results. The former Attorney General said that GECOM can still proceed ex parte with its work.
