WHILE the government has welcomed the findings by the Carter Centre ahead of the upcoming polls, People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo has noted that there are several key omissions from the report including vote-buying, death threats to the education minister Priya Manickchand and other acts of political intimidation and violence.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday during his weekly press conference, Dr. Jagdeo said that the report “confirms what we have been saying all along that there’s absolutely no evidence that the list is bloated.”

He accused the opposition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), of clinging to “a battle cry” noting that despite years of allegations, they have failed to produce proof that ineligible names remain on the voters’ list.

The Carter Centre examined all the evidence and found no evidence of a bloated list. Secondly, they found that the election campaign is being conducted in a peaceful manner, and political parties are campaigning freely, openly and they are getting their message out.

“So, I’m extremely pleased with those findings because they’re crucial to the conduct of elections whether you have a bloated list or people can’t campaign freely or in a peaceful manner. There are other elements of the report that I’ve expressed concern about,” he said.

The first issue which has caught the attention of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and condemnation from even the opposition is vote-buying, the General Secretary who also serves as Guyana’s Vice President pointed out.

Earlier this month, GECOM strongly emphasised the need for voters and other concerned stakeholders to be informed of the following provisions as enacted in the Representation of the People Act Cap: 1:03: – “It is an offence for any person, including the voter himself, to communicate at any time to any person, any information about the political party for which any voter has voted on his behalf or as a proxy on behalf of another voter; Similarly, it is an offence for anyone to influence, by any means, a voter to display his ballot paper, to make known the political party for whom he has voted on his behalf, or as a proxy.

Further, it is an offence for any person, directly or indirectly, to offer any money, gift, and/or a loan, to any voter to secure the vote of any voter at the elections.

Any person who commits any of the above offences shall be liable on summary conviction to pay a fine and to imprisonment for six months.”

Dr. Jagdeo in his comments on Thursday said: “They missed the biggest one with Azruddin Mohamed handing out money, which prompted GECOM to issue a statement saying that it’s illegal to buy votes or to be paid for your vote, and which also then prompted, I believe, APNU to call for a ban of the cell phones in the polling places. How could they miss that big one? That’s the biggest one.

“Vote buying is illegal in many countries, but nothing in the report on that, although these allegations have been in the public domain. In fact, you’ve seen videos have surfaced to that extent.”

He also referenced the widely circulated incident of Bradley “Doggie” Sampson, a chief organiser of We Invest in Nationhood (WIN)’s assaulting a woman on video.

The Vice-President also mentioned other reports of violence and intimidation, which were omitted.

He also focused on the Carter Centre’s comments on U.S. sanctions against WIN party presidential candidate Azruddin Mohamed and associated entities. The report suggested banks should avoid “de-risking” their accounts.

“OFAC made it very explicit, and that’s the United States Treasury Department, which is a financial institution said we will not tell the local banks what to do because each bank operates within a framework. So, I find that very strange,” Dr. Jagdeo said.

The report by the Carter Centre also mentioned state resources and Dr. Jagdeo rejection of claims that the PPP/C is misusing state resources.

He pointed out that in 2020, the APNU+AFC was doing such when they spent $419 billion outside of parliamentary approval around the elections and signed large contracts even after election day.

Dr. Jagdeo said that the PPP/C offers “no apology” for fulfilling its commitments of continuing to open schools, hospitals and executing other initiatives that have been promised.

“I’m proud of these inaugurations. They show we are delivering on promises,” he said.