… as Chair writes Top Cop to “verify” status of migrated persons
The Opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) is maintaining that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has “no jurisdiction” to investigate the allegations of “electoral fraud” being leveled by the APNU/AFC Coalition.
The Coalition has claimed that dead and migrated persons voted on the March 2 Elections Day and has written the GECOM Chair, (ret’d) Justice Claudette Singh, to probe the issue.
Today, a letter dated May 22, 2020, which was seen by INews, surfaced and detailed Justice Singh requesting Police Commissioner, Leslie James, “…to cause the Immigration Department to verify whether these persons were out of the country on March 2, 2020,”.
It appears as though this decision was taken by the GECOM Chair without any discussions at the level of the seven-member Elections Commission. In fact, one Opposition-nominated Commissioner has indicated that today is the first time they were made aware that a letter was sent to the Top Cop over a week ago to probe the Coalition’s allegation.
However, the PPP/C in a statement today pointed out that the party is not afraid of any probe into the Coalition’s allegations and insisted that it won the March 2 elections which were held almost three months ago.
Nevertheless, the party says it will be requesting a meeting with the GECOM Chair on the matter.
See below for the full statement issued by the PPP/C today:
The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) notes a letter sent by the Commissioner of Police to the Chairperson of GECOM, providing a list of persons who were allegedly out of the country on Elections Day.
We wish to highlight that a political party APNU+AFC, not the Government, was provided by the Commissioner of Police/Immigration Department with the immigration records of citizens without their consent, which APNU+AFC is using for its nefarious political agenda. The matter is compounded by the Commissioner of Police purporting to verify the very information that he or his servants/agents supplied to that political party.
It is already on the public record that APNU+AFC is concocting these allegations. One would recall a couple in Berbice who are in Guyana and voted for APNU+AFC but APNU+AFC claimed that those persons were overseas on Elections Day. This issue was fully ventilated in the Kaieteur News. We have also found hundreds of persons who were in Guyana on March 2, and voted, yet APNU+AFC claimed that they were out of the jurisdiction on election day. Certainly, if the information provided by the Commissioner of Police/his servants and or agents are false, such misrepresentation will not be without consequences at the appropriate time.
In any event, there is no way of connecting any of the persons who APNU+AFC claims were abroad with the ballots cast on March 2, so it is all a wild fishing expedition to delay the declaration of the results. We continue to maintain that GECOM has no jurisdiction to hear and determine these matters which can only be addressed by the High Court in an election petition. However, we wish to make it abundantly clear that the PPP/C is not afraid of any investigation or inquiry of any type and is ready to participate in any such activity at the appropriate time and at the right forum.
The PPP/C intends to seek an audience with the Chairperson for clarification on this latest development.
It will be recalled that in a sample of 87 ballot boxes on the East Bank Demerara, Mingo fraudulently gifted to APNU+AFC over 5000 votes. In order to detract from Mingo’s fraud and in their frantic effort to prevent the declaration of the final results of the recount, the likes of Joseph Harmon will manufacture more ridiculous allegations, such as that 96,000 ballots cast are invalid.
No doubt, as the recount continues to establish that the PPP/C won a landslide victory, APNU+AFC desperation will rise to fever-pitch over the next few days and we will have to confront many more wild and bizarre contentions.
