…Coalition candidate Mahipaul argues in urging GECOM to nullify polls

…says elections must represent the will of the people

“FRAUD is fraud,” and these elections were fraudulent based on the irregularities uncovered during the recount,” APNU+AFC candidate, Ganesh Mahipaul, has said, as he made his case for the Guyana Elections Commission to nullify March 2, 2020 polls.

“It is impossible for an election to represent the will of the people if a large portion of ballots cast by the electorate have been made invalid or questionable, not by the doings of the electorate, but that of those authorised to conduct the elections and other outside forces,” Mahipaul further argued when he appeared on Guyana Chronicle’s Vantage Point on Friday. Mahipaul said that while his party has been insisting that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) fulfill its constitutional duty to deliver credible elections, some other political parties seem to care little about the “credible” as aspect of the elections.

If one were to categorise the irregularities highlighted during the recount process, according to the APNU+AFC, it would include ballots rejected due to actions on the part of GECOM staff such as improper stamping; questionable ballots due to the absence of statutory documents such as poll books, the Official List of Electors (OLE) with names ticked off and oaths of identities; and persons voting in the place of those dead and migrated.

“GECOM needs to take the responsibility because they are responsible for the holding of credible elections in our country and clearly these elections were not credible, clearly these elections show that there were interferences, there was collusion and I think GECOM needs to take full responsibility because it is their process. Had the process been done smoothly and had there been no error or a small amount of error, definitely GECOM would have been given the praises…but we have a situation where GECOM needs to take full responsibility,” he said.

Though People’s Progressive Party Civic agents did not raise contention about the irregularities witnessed in the boxes, Mahipaul said that, on occasions, he received the support of the United Republican Party (URP) and The Citizenship Initiative (TCI). “They supported it because they understood and agreed that these anomalies are real and truly factual and they cannot reconcile what is in the box,” he said.

There is still disagreement amongst political parties about whether GECOM is responsible for conducting investigations into the cases of irregularities raised. According to the PPP/C, such does not fall within the remit of GECOM but the courts and through an election petition. However, the APNU+AFC has put forward a different reasoning.

“This is the Guyana Elections Commission’s process. It is they who have to give this country credible results and, in order for them to give credible results, they have to validate their own findings, what is being told to them; they have to ensure that when they make a pronouncement it is one of credibility and you cannot do that without doing your investigation,” Mahipaul rebutted.

The APNU+AFC Agent said that the national recount process gave Guyanese a close-up view of what were the irregularities within ballot boxes which otherwise, perhaps, would not have come to their attention. He believes that it is highly likely that such were also present at other elections.

He said that such realities are not only concerning because GECOM staff were trained prior to the conduct of elections, but because of the fact that other acts, such as alleged illegal voting, would have, nonetheless, taken place under the supervision of GECOM.

“I will accept if the staple machine was found in the ballot box, that’s a mistake. I will accept if perhaps, the seal, it was pulled it too stiff and one was broken, that’s a mistake. But I cannot accept the absence of statutory documents as a mistake. I cannot accept the absence of documents that are supposed to ensure that these ballots can be validated as mistakes. I believe they were deliberate and it would have come from the collusion and the interaction between forces that wanted to fraud the system, I cannot accept those as mistakes. I cannot accept the dead voting as mistakes, I cannot accept migrants voting,” he said. As the nation awaits the conclusion of phases three and four of the recount, Mahipaul said that stakeholders involved have the opportunity to make good out of an electoral situation that has revealed its flaws or take the alternative, which is a declaration that doesn’t accurately reflect the will of the people.