-Norton admits mistake, withdraws claim

DESPITE the efforts made to incite discord and undermine the electoral proceedings in Guyana, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), has expressed appreciation for Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton’s acknowledgment of the truth. This is, the Guyana’s Elections Commission (GECOM) is not registering Venezuelan migrants to vote in the upcoming general and regional elections.

Dr. Jagdeo made these remarks at a press conference on Thursday at Freedom House.

The opposition leader had previously put forth the bizarre accusation that migrants from Guyana’s western neighbour are being registered; however, Dr. Jagdeo has always refuted the claim.
Norton, during his party’s press conference on Thursday, did not play into unfounded claims and instead corrected media operatives who were peddling the untruth that numerous migrants are being registered and stated that their scrutineers, through their thorough checks, found no instances of Venezuelan migrants being registered to vote.

“I’m also pleased that he [Norton] debunked some of the wild men who were there just to stir trouble…” Dr Jagdeo said.

The PPP/C General Secretary stressed that migrants from the Bolivarian Republic are being forced to flee their homeland because of political, economic, and social constraints.
“We didn’t bring them from Venezuela to vote for the PPP… They fled oppression; they fled hunger…” he stated.

When the opposition first made this claim in October, Dr. Jagdeo said that from January to October, about 13,600 people have been registered. Most of the people registered are from Regions Three, 2198 and Four, 5330.

“So we don’t see any evidence of this here in the actual registrations that are taking place in the country. It’s false,” he stated, as he explained that the breakdown mirrored the populations in each region.

Furthermore, the Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, had even challenged both of the Opposition Leaders, Norton, and Khemraj Ramjattan, to provide concrete evidence to support their claims.

According to the Attorney General, the opposition’s claims that GECOM was unlawfully registering unqualified persons were baseless, as no evidence had been presented to substantiate these allegations.

He questioned the reasoning behind the opposition’s insinuation that these allegedly unlawful registrants would vote in favour of the PPP/C.

“I don’t know that they are even supporters of the People’s Progressive Party. The other bizarre thing is how do you know and on what basis they are concluding that these persons who are being unlawfully registered are supporters of the PPP or will vote for the PPP? On what basis are they arriving at that conclusion?” Nandlall had asked.

He challenged the opposition leader’s ability to predict the voting preferences of individuals without any factual basis. He continued to express his doubts about the veracity of the claims, noting that the opposition’s propensity for making unsupported allegations was a recurring pattern.

He pointed out that GECOM is an independent organisation responsible for its actions and that, even if the allegations were accurate, GECOM’s makeup did not inherently favour the PPP/C.