NOTWITHSTANDING claims by party member Annette Ferguson of glaring “irregularities” at the People’s National Congress Reform (PNC/R) October 2 Georgetown District Elections, Leader of the party, Aubrey Norton on Tuesday endorsed the polls as “free and fair”.

It came to light last week that Ferguson had written to the party’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) expressing concerns over several suspicious occurrences during the polls, including the fact that the final ballot count of 213 votes exceeded the 211 votes that were cast.

However, when questioned about the situation during his weekly virtual press conference on Tuesday, Norton dismissed the irregularities as being of no concern and endorsed elections.

“I want to say this to you. The elections that were held there were free and fair. There were some contention that when the numbers [votes] added up it [ballots] had exceeded [the votes] by two. Now in the particular election the gap was more than 75 so I don’t know that materially could’ve affected the elections results,” Norton declared.

The Georgetown District is the PNC/R’s largest support base.

According to reports in the media, Ferguson lost the elections to Troy Garraway after receiving 87 votes to the 121 votes for Garraway. Five spoilt ballots were recorded, according to reports.

“Last weekend our party had the Region Four elections to elect the people who were elected by the delegates. What I will say is the people in our party decided who they wanted to elect. They elected Troy Garraway and they did not elect Annette Ferguson,” Norton said.

Aside from dismissing the inconsistency in the ballot numbers, Norton did not address any of the other discrepancies that Ferguson outlined in her letter.

Ferguson is said to have complained that prior to the Election Day, candidates did not receive important information regarding the number of delegates registered, the amount of ballots printed and how the actual voting would be done.

On the elections day, the irregularities reportedly include unregistered persons voting while a number of registered persons were prevented from voting, and ballots not being counted and verified in the presence of candidates.

Ferguson implored her party to examine those “irregularities” through a thorough internal probe, and strive to develop a better internal system to manage future elections, since there was a “glaring absence” of checks and balances at the recent district polls.

“The time has come for the PNC/R to rise to the occasion of practising fairness, honesty and being democratic when it comes to its internal business or affairs,” a report quoting the PNC/R executive member said.

However from Norton’s indications, Ferguson’s pleas fell on deaf ears.

Ferguson’s calls for the PNC/R to adopt those traits are not new, as the party has been accused on many occasions of rigging the results of national elections, with the latest being the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections.

Guyanese, after casting their votes on March 2, 2020, had to endure a five-month wait for the results of the General and Regional Elections, as they witnessed what was described as the most transparent attempt at election rigging on behalf of the APNU+AFC coalition.

Former District Four (Demerara-Mahaica) Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo; former PNC/R Chairperson, Volda Lawrence; now APNU+AFC Chief Scrutineer, Carol Smith-Joseph and four others are currently before the courts for elections-related offences.

Adamant that the illegalities during the recent elections must be exposed, President, Dr Irfaan Ali, has appointed veteran legal luminaries to conduct a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the events that followed the March 2 polls. The CoI hearings will begin on November 3.