–Norton confirms
OPPOSITION Leader Aubrey Norton has disclosed that his party, the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), has mobilised polling agents to be at every polling station across the country.
“We have mobilised polling agents for every polling station. But if you are aware of what happens on polling day, somebody might get sick or something; what we do is we have backup to replace them, but so far, we have prepared polling agents for all the polling stations across the country,” the Opposition Leader told a press conference on Friday last.
The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has not yet announced how many polling stations will be established for the upcoming September 1 General and Regional Elections. As part of efforts to safeguard fairness and transparency of electoral proceedings, the presence of polling agents at voting stations has become a practice.
Additionally, Norton also distanced himself from unsubstantiated claims that one of his previous party representatives made against their polling agents in 2020.
When the APNU+Alliance For Change coalition continued to make unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud in 2020, an official of the party accused their own polling agents of colluding with its biggest competitor – the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C).
When asked by a reporter how the APNU plans to screen its polling agents this year in light of the 2020 accusations, Norton stated: “At no stage did we accuse polling agents of what you are suggesting.”
Further, in June, Norton said that APNU would respect the legitimate results of the elections.
“If we lose an honest election, we will honour it,” Norton noted on a recent political show.
A Presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the events of the 2020 General and Regional Elections found that there was collusion and collaboration between senior GECOM officials to divert votes to the APNU+AFC instead of safeguarding and preserving the integrity of the electoral system.
Chairman of the CoI, Stanley John and Commissioners — former Chancellor, Carl Singh and Senior Counsel Godfrey Smith – made these findings based on evidence from the many witnesses who testified, along with the reports of the international observers.
“…Our inquiry reveals that there were, in fact, shockingly brazen attempts by Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield, Deputy Chief Election Officer (DCEO) Roxanne Myers and Returning Officer (RO) Clairmont Mingo to derail and corrupt the statutorily prescribed procedure for the counting, ascertaining and tabulation of votes of the March 2nd election, as well as the true declaration of the results of that election, and that they did so – to put it in unvarnished language of the ordinary man – for the purpose of stealing the election,” the Commissioners said in their report.
The Guyanese electorate, after casting votes on March 2, 2020, endured a five-month wait for the results as they witnessed unlawful acts and a slew of legal challenges.
At that time, the patience of the electorate was tested, as they observed what were described as attempts by the then APNU+AFC administration to rip the democratic fabric of the nation with “delay tactics” which were openly criticised by Caribbean leaders and international observers.
Furthermore, the head of the Electoral Observation Mission of the Organisation of American States (OAS), Bruce Golding, had spoken about the 2020 elections and stated that he had never seen such a “transparent effort to alter the results of an election.”