PPPC unwilling to concede defeat

Last Updated on Thursday, 14 May 2015, 18:00 by GxMedia

by Zena Henry and Denis Chabrol

The People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) maintains that it has won the May 11, 2015 general and regional elections and from all indications is not ready to concede defeat, although preliminary results show that it has been defeated in the May 11 polls.

Executive Committee member Gail Teixeira said her party preferred to await the official declaration of the final results by the Chief Elections Officer. “There has to be an official declaration by law,” she said when asked whether her party would be conceding defeat to the coalition of A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC).

The Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield announced that APNU+AFC won a total of 206, 817 while the PPPC won PPPC 201,457 votes based on the processing of all 2,229 statements of poll.

Asked whether the PPPC was considering going to court to block the official declaration of results, expected by Friday, “I can’t answer that question right now.” She said she believed that based on the PPPC’s statements of poll, her party has won the general elections.
 
President Donald Ramotar earlier Thursday called an emergency meeting May 14 to state his claim of an alleged unfair General and Regional Election 2015.

Speaking to the media outside of the Office of the President, several of the local persons who attended the meeting said that the government was in no way ready to concede that they have lost the Elections.

While the PPP is still claiming a win and making serious allegations of irregularities during the voting process, the party is demanding a recount of votes in all 10 regions within the country.
Civil society member Vic Odit told reporters that the foreign representatives were briefed on the PPP’s view of the election. He said issues of irregularities were raised about, “fake Statement of Polls. Statement of Polls have been submitted according to the PPP and those are being investigated…” he stated.

When asked about the PPP conceding, he said, “no, not at all.”
Kashir Khan, a member of the legal community also stated that the PPP raised issues with the foreign community which they viewed as not getting the deserved attention from the Elections Commission. “It is expected that at some point those issues raised will become live,” said Khan. He did not elaborate on what those concerns were.

In the meantime, Demerara Waves understands that the PPP is claiming a known number of fake ballot papers.

They have been claiming hours after voting day May 11, that there were irregularities that existed. The party’s most recent press briefing held May 13 alleged that the election was not free and fair and their supporters were not “free from fear” due to alleged intimidation by opposition supporters.