-Dr Jagdeo says, highlights safeguards in place to ensure free and fair elections next year

OWING to the attempts by the A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) in 2020 to interfere with the electoral process, implementations to ensure the system is ironclad were enacted and now, People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, is confident about the integrity of the upcoming 2025 General and Regional Elections.

Although elections are a cornerstone of democratic governance, in 2020, Guyanese saw the very fabric of democracy being torn apart by the APNU+AFC.
During a press conference at the party’s headquarters on Thursday, Dr Jagdeo, who also serves as Guyana’s Vice President stated that the events in 2020 which led to the nation being at a standstill for five months were a result of the individuals attempting to destabilise institutions and not by the election machinery.

Nevertheless, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring the integrity of the electoral process, responding to recent demands from the AFC for updates to the electoral system.
In a press release issued on Wednesday, GECOM reaffirmed its dedication to adhering to Guyana’s legal framework.
In relation to AFC’s comments, Dr Jagdeo had dismissed the concerns and said: “The AFC and the others are raising red herrings because this is their only way of justifying what we know the outcome would be in the future. They’re going to lose the [2025] elections and they know that, too.”

Further, the PPP General Secretary, while explaining that the system was robust and instead it was those APNU+AFC players who caused the 2020 General and Regional Elections fiasco, said: “…The statements of poll came out, the statements of polls showed that we [PPP] won the [2020] elections. Everything was there… It wasn’t the machinery. It was these individuals who tried to subvert one aspect of the election process, which is clearly outlined. You have to use the statements of poll to tabulate the results at the regional level and declare those results.”

He then stated that within nine regions, the Returning Officer (RO) had accurately tabulated and announced the results; however, Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) is where there were attempts to manipulate the results.
After outlining the measures undertaken, at the time, to ensure that these efforts did not bear fruit, Dr Jagdeo then said: “At the end of the day, the system worked. So we identified the flaw and we fix it, and we’ve identified the perpetrators through a CoI …Those individuals are now charged. So the system is working now.”

The PPP General Secretary went on to say: “We believe that the system is a robust one with the international observers, all the political parties observing the process, being in the polling places there and ensuring votes are counted transparently, ensuring that people who are not on the list, don’t vote… All of that could be done as it was done in the past.”
It is alleged that between March 2, 2020, and August 2, 2020, Keith Lowenfield, Roxanne Myers, and Clairmont Mingo, while in Georgetown, conspired with the other six defendants and others to defraud the electorate by declaring a false account of the votes cast.
Among other things, it is alleged that the defendants inflated or facilitated the inflation of results for Region Four, the country’s largest voting district, to give the APNU+AFC coalition a majority win at the March 2020 polls, when, in fact, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) had won by over 15,000 votes.

Further, Dr Jagdeo stated that with the new law in place, GECOM’s Chief Elections Officer (CEO) cannot attempt any “capricious” actions as there are serious penalties in place such as imprisonment.
GECOM has assured the public that multiple safeguards are in place to prevent forms of “skullduggery” on Elections Day.
These include “the presence of political party agents at each polling station, accurate identification of the voter, the use of indelible ink, the presence of security personnel from the Guyana Police Force, and the conduct of an intensive voter education campaign.”
GECOM also said that Election Day staff receive thorough training, ballots are counted at polling places in the presence of party representatives, and both local and international observers monitor the voting and counting processes.
To address concerns about impersonation, GECOM said that its Chief Election Officer, Vishnu Persaud, has proposed installing cameras in polling stations to record activities without compromising ballot secrecy.
This proposal is currently being considered by the Commission.
As such, GECOM reiterated its commitment to delivering “free, fair, transparent and credible elections” and called on all stakeholders to support its efforts within the constitutional framework.