REQUESTS made by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) leader, Mr Donald Ramotar to have the results of each ballot box and each Statement of Poll (SoPs) released were shored up yesterday by a legal advance.Former Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, yesterday wrote to the Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM) Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield, demanding that this be done.

“I am instructed that on the 18th day of May 2015, my client wrote to you requesting the results in respect to each Ballot Box of the votes cast, both valid and invalid, at those elections. My client further requested a copy of every Statement of Poll that was used in the tabulation of the declared results for the aforesaid elections….To date, you have failed, omitted, and/or refused to comply with my client’s aforesaid requests,” he wrote.

Nandlall added that, given the circumstances, acting on the instruction of his client, Mr Ramotar, Lowenfield is being asked to comply with the requests for the disclosures to be made, or face legal proceedings.

“In the circumstances, I am instructed to demand, as I hereby do, that you comply with my client’s requests forthwith. I sincerely hope that I do not have to resort to legal proceedings to compel you to do so,” he said.

The former Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs made it clear that time is of the essence. “As my client did, I reiterate that time is of the essence,” he stressed.

RIGGED ELECTIONS
As GECOM released preliminary results of the 2015 General and Regional Elections, Ramotar emphatically stated that the process was “rigged” in favour of the political Opposition.

“We are convinced that these elections were rigged,” he said at a news conference held last week at Freedom House, Robb Street.

He also stridently called out GECOM on the question of collusion with the political Opposition, even as he acknowledged that not all of the polling day staff acted in a manner that undermined the democratic process of May 11.

“We think that these are serious issues that deserve to be investigated, and done before a final pronouncement on these elections is made,” Mr. Ramotar had said; and on that basis, he called for a total recount of the votes. This was not done.

“We should have a total recount of votes; it won’t take a long time…to recount the whole election process, to give this election credibility and integrity. We think that it is essential to have a total recount of the votes,” he contends.

MANY DISCREPANCIES
Mr Ramotar has said there are many glaring discrepancies. “We have evidence!” he stressed.
One major issue Mr Ramotar highlighted is the Chief Elections Officer’s own admission that falsified Statements of Polls detailing the outcomes of votes cast had been submitted to GECOM.

Last Wednesday night, Lowenfield held back results for 490 polling stations out of the total 2,299 stations for this reason. It was disclosed that these fake SOPs had layouts and formats that were different from the authentic ones earlier distributed by GECOM for use by Polling Agents. Additionally, these fake SoPs did not carry the GECOM endorsement which had been applied to all the SoPs purchased from Canada.

It was also observed that SoPs submitted to GECOM from the Electoral Districts had aggregate numbers of voters exceeding the voting population allocated to the polling stations.

The myriad of problems identified by the PPP/C included: misdirection by some GECOM staffers who advised voters; damaged stamps, which saw some ballots not being properly stamped; the fact that persons without identification cards were allowed to vote, even though their images did not match those in the files of GECOM staff; and the denial of proxy holders to use their proxies, among others.

Three requests — a total recount, investigation of discrepancies and implementation of remedies -– were communicated to GECOM. (Vanessa Narine)