OPPOSITION Leader Bharrat Jagdeo is calling for an international agency to conduct a forensic audit into the, allegedly, fake statements of poll (SOP) that his party ‘discovered’ at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) during the recent election period.Expressing this desire yesterday at a press conference at his party’s Freedom House headquarters, Jagdeo said: “The same night, when the media asked (GECOM Chairman Steve) Surujbally how many SOPs are fraudulent, and he said ask (Chief Elections Officer Keith) Lowenfield; and when asked, he said many, then immediately they should have called in the police, because any attempt to subvert the will of the election laws is a criminal matter.”

Jagdeo argued: “Let’s get a group from abroad to investigate where the fake SOPs came from, and then if they conclude if we are unable to determine where the SOP came from, then we will believe that. But not Surujbally, we don’t believe him because we think he was part of the problem.”

Jagdeo contended that if there are persons in the employ of GECOM who sought to corrupt the system with the fake ‘SOPs’ — with the intention of generating incorrect results to thwart the will of the electorate — then this confirms the long held view of the PPP that there is an urgent need for an overhaul of the GECOM machinery as one of the several elections reforms that must be addressed in the not-too-distant future.

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has rejected, in a missive, this statement made by GECOM Chairman, Dr. Surujbally: “It would be impossible to prove who took the false statement of poll into the Commission…and I couldn’t see why we would proceed with an investigation.”

The PPP has noted that such a statement is a reflection of GECOM’s gross incompetence, and is an indictment of that organisation’s inability to conduct free and fair elections unless there are reforms of the GECOM machinery.

“The statement is also a confession of the extent to which GECOM’s security procedures and quality control measure have been compromised. Further, the statement smacks of another unilateral conclusion reached by (Dr) Surujbally, thus confirming grave suspicions of many about his biased judgment,” the PPP added.
“It is doubtful whether this is the conclusion of the entire GECOM or Surujbally’s personally. If it is the latter, then this is an extremely serious and dangerous development. Mr. Lowenfield, Chief Elections Officer at GECOM, must answer to this development.”

The PPP has stated it is convinced that had the Party been returned to office following the May elections, and with such an allegation hanging over the Commission, the APNU+AFC in opposition would have “refused to accept the results, claimed the elections were rigged, probably burnt the city down, and (would have) demanded another forensic audit.”

By Rabindra Rooplall