Demerara Waves Online News- Guyana Riding on the Crest of Truth
Last Updated on Monday, 15 June 2020, 9:05 by Denis Chabrol
Even as President David Granger said the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) would possibly scrap the March 2, 2020 general and regional elections due to massive electoral fraud, A New and United Guyana (ANUG) has reiterated that that is not constitutionally possible.
Granger– who backed the Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield’s initial report that says the number of votes that are unaffected by impersonation, irregularities and anomalies amounts to 185,302– repeatedly stated stated that GECOM would have to invalidate the March 2, 2020 polls.
“I do feel that in this case it is not impossible that the Election Commission will say that based on the evidence that was presented, we cannot declare because the information indicates that there has been widespread fraud or that the process is flawed,” he said.
GECOM is scheduled to meet on Monday to consider the initial Lowenfield report.
The A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) presidential candidate believed that Lowenfield did nothing wrong, amid claims by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and A New and United Guyana (ANUG) that the top GECOM official stepped outside his bounds.
APNU+AFC claims that more than 250,000 votes are tainted and should be withdrawn before a declaration is made bear striking resemblance to the 275,050 votes that Lowenfield says are unaffected by impersonation and other irregularities.
This, ANUG, says is part of a wider plot that involved GECOM dating back to the recount when party representatives were refused the opportunity to view documents when claims were made that people. “With the complicity of the rogue elements in the GECOM secretariat, APNU has told the Guyanese people that there were so many anomalies in the conduct of the previously fair and credible electoral process that the election must be annulled. In order to create this new deception, APNU with the complicity of the rogue Gecom secretariat evolved a five stage plan,” the party said.
The three ‘joinder’ parties- ANUG, Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) and The New Movement (TNM) got a total of 5,214 votes, but Lowenfield’s extraction of votes not affected gives the trio a total of 1,650. LJP got no votes in Regions One and Four in the CEO’s figures.
ANUG alleged that GECOM, in complicity, with APNU+AFC hatched a plan that included the election official recording allegations by APNU+AFC that certain voters were either dead or overseas on polling day. ANUG said the GECOM officials at the same time refused to record observations by other political parties that no evidence was provided that and that the Elections Commission records showed that voters had presented themselves, showed their identification cards and had been verified by People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and APNU+AFC representatives before they had been handed ballot papers to vote. ANUG further alleged that the GECOM officials had also refused to permit any opposition party or observer to look at the voters’ list from the box to verify whether the named individuals had in fact voted.
“In the meanwhile, APNU would promote the narrative that the election which had given them a victory with the Mingo Count was now not credible”, ANUG said.
ANUG said all of this was now backed up in the Chief Elections Officer’s report which failed to contain a summary of the observation reports. “Lowenfield has not provided a summary of the Observation Sheets. A summary is a condensation, an abridgement. Lowenfield has taken it upon himself to decide that the unproven and unsubstantiated bare allegations of dead and overseas voters recorded by complicit GECOM officials on the say so of APNU representatives are evidence that the allegations are true,” ANUG said.
That political party flayed Lowenfield for drawing conclusions that he could determine whether the polls meet the standard for fair and credible elections.