APNU+AFC so far accepting just over 75,000 of the 400,000 votes recounted

Last Updated on Sunday, 7 June 2020, 9:35 by Denis Chabrol

Six hours after President David Granger again assured Guyanese that he would accept a declaration of the March 2, 2020 general and regional election results, the coalition he leads indicated that it was only prepared to accept results of 75,707 votes so far counted for  itself and the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) in all areas except the East Coast Demerara.

“Given the clear intent of the PPP to commit voter fraud, only ballots with the required legal documentation to validate all votes are to be counted,” the coalition said on its official Facebook page.

By A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) calculation, it says a mere 619 boxes do not have irregularities and the votes from those boxes show that the coalition won 44,019 votges and the PPP 31,688 votes. Those, the coalition said, do not include ballots cast on the East Coast Demerara.

This is in stark contrast to the unofficial results that are being posted by The Citizenship Initiative political party showing that 434,642 valid votes were cast and 4,018 were rejected up to Saturday. Those figures show that APNU+AFC won 205,756 votes and the PPP 220,073.

President Granger, in an address to Guyanese, on the penultimate day of the national recount of votes said, “Everyone is aware of numerous reports of irregularities including unstamped ballots, deceased and migrant voters and missing poll books. Those irregularities appear to have been committed intentionally, not accidentally, and demonstrate a pattern of manipulation of the electoral process.”

In challenging the validity of votes in 29 boxes from the East Coast Demerara because of the absence of supporting documents, General Secretary of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), Amna Ally on July 6 told the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission, Retired Justice Claudette Singh that the coalition’s agents “cannot examine each ballot  and this prevents them from detecting with any certainty the issue we complain about.”

GECOM was Sunday expected to decide on the fate of those ballots. The PPP maintains that those votes were validly cast and voters were never concerned about whether there would documents in the box. Pro-APNU+AFC commissioner, Vincent Alexander has said the voters could not be disenfranchised but the documents are needed to reconcile them with the ballots.

Mr. Granger also stresses the importance of the CARICOM scrutineers  report in the Guyana Elections Commission deciding on the credibility of the March 2, 2020 general elections. “It is expected that, given the exceptional interest of the CARICOM Heads of Government and the extraordinary exertions of the CARICOM scrutinizing team, their ‘report’ which will be sent to the Election Commission, will receive the fullest consideration,” he said.