GUYANA Elections Commission (GECOM) Chairman Dr. Steve Surujbally has expressed grave doubts about the veracity of People’s Progressive Party (PPP) allegations that its scrutineers have been ejected from some GECOM registration offices and were forced to work in the compound of those offices.During that party’s weekly press conference yesterday, General Secretary Clement Rohee disclosed thus: “PPP scrutineers have been ejected from some registration offices and put to work in the compound of the offices. In other cases, the gates are locked and the scrutineers are not afforded anywhere to work. This was the case at Belle West, West Bank Demerara and at Charity, Pomeroon.”

However, Dr. Surujbally countered: “I have not heard of that, but I would like to doubt it.”

These revelations, being uncovered as the claims and objections period for Local Government Elections continues, have sparked in the PPP camp concerns that there are consistent rumours on the ground that fake birth certificates are in circulation, a matter which the party is on the lookout for, since should any such document fall into the hands of the PPP, it will be made available to the police.

“We are concerned that if Nomination Day is to be somewhere around mid-January 2016 — that is approximately one month from now — this may very well jeopardise the printing, delivery and distribution of the ballot papers for the elections to take place in a smooth and timely fashion,” said the Party’s General Secretary.

These are matters which the GECOM Chairman disclosed are of interest, given that he is unaware of them; as such it will be investigated, Rohee said.

Rohee also said that questions have arisen about the status of the Old Orders versus the New Orders, and whether the Older Orders should be rejected to give effect to the New Orders establishing the new municipalities. He said GECOM is yet to resolve a number of outstanding matters with respect to voting by the disciplined forces at the Local Government Elections. Accordingly, there are a number of laws that will have to be amended if problems are to be avoided before March 18, 2016.

The handling of the votes by the disciplined services in the May 2015 elections gave rise to several highly suspicious occurrences, Rohee charged, and amendments would need to be made to several sections of the principal act to avoid recurrence of a similar nature at the upcoming Local Government Elections.