WHILE it is fielding more than 600 candidates for next month’s Local Government Elections (LGEs), the Alliance For Change (AFC) says its support speaks to the interest in the party; and it has noted too that forgery on the part of the opposition to secure backers will not guarantee that party votes on polling day.

The AFC’s Bartica candidate and Deputy Campaign Director, Juretha Fernandes, noted during a press briefing on Wednesday at the party’s headquarters on Railway Line, Kitty, that the AFC has decided that if one has to forge signatures in order to be credible as a candidate, then votes cannot be forged on elections day. Fernandes was flanked by AFC chairman Marlon Williams, Region Four chairman Michael Leonard and Linden candidate Devin Sears.

The party officials were reacting to the High Court’s decision to dismiss a case filed by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) challenging the names of nominators in a Corentyne Local Authority Area. On Tuesday, Justice Navindra Singh dismissed the case which sought to have the names of 50 nominators removed from a list submitted by the AFC to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) for the Bloomfield/Whim Local Authority Area (LAA). The case was brought against GECOM’s Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield and the Returning Officer, Bloomfield /Whim, Orlando Persaud.

In a Fixed Date Application, Shafraz Beekham, a PPP/C candidate, had contended that he and 49 others were misled by AFC representatives into signing as nominators on the AFC’s List of Candidates. As such, his application was intended to quash GECOM’s decision to refuse to withdraw, remove, or delete the applicant’s name and the names of 49 other electors that appeared on the AFC’s list of nominators.

In handing down his ruling on Tuesday in the Berbice High Court, Justice Singh said there was no evidence of fraud, trickery or threats and as such, there was no basis to ask the chief election officer to ‘strike out’ the names of the nominators from the AFC’s Lists of Candidates.

Fernandes, while directing her comments to the PPP, noted that she was once a victim of that party’s alleged fraudulent actions. Fernandes recalled that in the lead-up to the 2016 LGEs, she contested with another group and when the lists were submitted to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), electoral officials called and informed her of duplication issues in which her name appeared on the PPP’s list of nominators; she said the list even included members of her family and added what has happened this year regarding fraudulent lists compiled by the PPP “is nothing new”; she noted that the PPP has perfected the issue of fraud as regards the LGEs lists of nominators.

Leonard told reporters that the party welcomes the recent decision of the court, although he noted that it was not unexpected. He said the legal challenge made by the PPP is one in a string of hostile positions taken by that party towards the judiciary. He said Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo even recently turned his wrath against the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), bringing the legal body into disrepute.

Leonard maintained that the AFC will continue to conduct a decent and honourable elections campaign; he urged the party’s candidates to maintain a clean campaign, as he noted that the PPP does not have a liking for local democracy and self-government.