PPP accuses APNU+AFC of double standards in national recount of votes

Last Updated on Saturday, 21 March 2020, 10:49 by Writer

Attorneys-at-Law Anil Nandlall, Sanjeev Datadin and Roysdale Forde.

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) says strong evidence has surfaced that A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) is displaying double standards about its desire to settle the political impasse over the results of the March 2, 2020 general elections.

The PPP points to the fact that APNU+AFC candidate, Attorney-at-Law, Roysdale Forde on Friday afternoon told High Court Judge, Franklyn Holder that he is representing colleague candidate, Ulita Moore in her application for a judicial review of the Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM) decision to recount the votes cast and already declared by the ten administrative districts’ Returning Officers.

President David Granger had asked the Caribbean Community (Caricom) to field a team to supervise a national recount of votes in the wake of widespread concerns of electoral fraud by local and internation observers about the tabulation process in Region Four.

“While Mr. Granger wants to project to Caricom and the world that he wants a resolution of this matter, by making grand promises, in the background his Commissioners at GECOM, Moore and Forde are doing everything possible to undermine, frustrate and prevent the recount from taking place,” the PPP said in a statement.

The PPP notes that on Friday morning Forde left the courtroom after he told Justice Holder that he was overlooking the interests of APNU to which the judge reportedly pointed out that that party had no case before him.

Forde, reportedly in the afternoon, told the Judge that he was now part of the battery of lawyers who are now representing Moore.

After Moore secured the injunction last week to block the Caricom-supervised recount, Caricom Chairperson, Barbados Prime Minister, Mia Mottley said, “it is clear that there are forces that do not want to see the votes recounted for whatever reason. Any Government which is sworn in without a credible and fully transparent vote count process would lack legitimacy.”

In the wake of international condemnation and threat of sanctions by the United States, Britain, Canada and the European Union if the March 2, 2020 general and regional elections are not seen as credible and transparent, President Granger Friday night said he was committed to a clean electoral process. “I have maintained that the electoral process must be credible. Free and fair elections are essential to representative democracy.”

Caricom has said that it is on standby to help Guyana, even as international pressure mounts on GECOM and the Granger-led administration to ensure every vote is counted so that people perceived as involved in electoral fraud are not punished and Guyana is not isolated.

The Roman Catholic Bishops in the Caribbean, eminent international statesman, Sir Shridath Ramphal, the African Cultural and Development Association (ACDA) and former Foreign Minister Rudy Insanally have all called for the political crisis to be resolved.