…AFC denounces use of force by police against APNU protesters
THE Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) will be making scanned copies of the statements of polls (SOPs) available to the opposition political parties as soon as possible. GECOM’s public relations officer, Vishnu Persaud, said this during a telephone interview with the Guyana Chronicle last evening, addressing the allegations of delays, levelled at GECOM by members of the Alliance for Change (AFC).
According to Persaud, no time line was agreed upon for the submission of the SOPs, as such, officials are ‘ferverently’ working to make scanned copies available.
“We are still putting these together, they then have to be converted to PDF format and we are working to get this done as soon as possible,” he said.
At a press briefing convened at the party headquarters yesterday, AFC executive members, Raphael Trotman and Khemraj Ramjattan both maintained that the protest action and the use of force by the Guyana Police Force on Tuesday could have been avoided if GECOM had submitted the SOPs earlier.
Party Leader Raphel Trotman explained, “All of this could have been avoided if GECOM had acceded to the request for the SOPs to be shared with all parties and even the public at large. We find it strange and suspicious that GECOM would refuse so simple request to share certifying documents… they have right to show the basis on which they acted.”
Meanwhile, AFC Presidential Candidate at the 2011 general and regional elections, Khemraj Ramjattan reiterated the party’s position on this issue and demanded that GECOM provide the information to all stakeholders.
He said, “We made it quite clear to President Ramotar during our meeting on Monday with his team, that the right to protest is a constitutional right, a fundamental human right, and we must ensure that people, in view of the legitimate concerns they have with the SOPs, that they be allowed to protest and demonstrate.”

In addition, the AFC members denounced the use of force by the Guyana Police Force, on Tuesday, while A Partnership for National Unity supporters were demonstrating at the Square of the Revolution.
“We believe the right to protest should not be violated and whilst there has been discrepancies as to if permission was granted, certainly it is now widely accepted that the conduct of those protesters did not warrant the use of tear smoke and rubber pellets,” Trotman said.
He emphasized that the AFC will be taking the matter up “in a more frontal way”, and called for a complete revamping of the Elections Commission as well as its Commissioners, including the opposition representatives.