…APNU+AFC says armed with death, immigration records of persons on voters’ list

The APNU-AFC coalition, in an organised manner, will be highlighting to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) evidence of persons who would have voted at the recent regional and general elections but who are known to be deceased or have migrated.

This method includes death certificates and the migration records of these individuals —- documents which would serve as hard proof to the Commission which has requested the same.

For these persons in question, especially those alive, the Commission has asked that the party utilize the individual’s ballot serial number instead of their names.

Coming out of the center shortly after the second day of the recount commenced, Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson, representing the APNU/AFC said: “We have a team in the background providing all the serial numbers to our agents before the boxes are open so that we can give them as much information as possible…we have death certificates, we have migration records, we have very reliable information.”

Yesterday, Patterson and several others had raised the issue that there were around 15 discrepancies the party found of which the majority were dead or migrants.

At the close of the day, GECOM’s Public Relations Officer, Yolanda Ward, said that the commission has taken note of these concerns and, providing that there is proof to support the claims, will deliberate on how these matters will be addressed.

“For us at GECOM, we have not sought any authenticity as it relates to that information but I’m sure, now that it’s in the public domain, it is something that the commission will have to deliberate on and provide some guidance going forward,” she had said.

Today, Patterson hopes that, before the first round of ballot boxes are dealt with, the Commission will decide on how it plans to deal with the matter.

“We took their word, they said they would have a resolution to certain issues so I don’t hope for another round of ballot boxes to be opened without us having some clear directions on what we can do and what will be allowed,” he said.

This is even as a photograph has been circulating on social media since yesterday of a deceased man, Emanuel Williams, who allegedly still voted at a polling station at the Karawab Primary School.

As the Commission hopes to address the matter, Commissioner Vincent Alexander has noted that such cases are difficult to decide upon as while someone, by name, would have died, how the commission identifies the said person’s vote is the question.

Even so, Patterson said that the APNU/AFC will make use of the recount as an opportunity not only to point out such anomalies but to finally conclude on the victor of the 2020 General and Regional Elections.

The political party is also actively comparing the Statement of Record Statements of Recount (SORs) to data from the previous Statements of Poll (SOPs) to see what differences arise.

“We’re doing that [the comparison] right now and we’re supposed to have a live feed some time. As I said yesterday, there are some [ballots] that would have already moved from one side to the other side…we are comparing them with the new cleared figures,” the Minister stated.

“As it is, we have an opportunity for a recount so therefore we’re going through it to provide as much evidence as we can on the process and how the process transpired, how persons voted and, eventually, who was the successful winner.”