The political parties were united this afternoon in their praise for the staff of the Guyana Elections Commission that worked at the recounting of ballots.
The results from the recount of Region 4 ballots were officially certified this afternoon and signed off by the political parties that contested the region except for the APNU+AFC Coalition.
The incumbent coalition has been refusing to sign off on the recount certification documents as it maintains that the recount has unearthed multiple cases of electoral fraud that must be addressed by the Commission.
APNU+AFC Tabulation Agent, Juretha Fernandes told reporters this afternoon that with the ballot counting and tabulation phase of the process now completed, the Commission will have to act on the discrepancies and anomalies that have been recorded in the observation reports.
“I think that the Observation Report has already cast more than a shadow of doubt on the process. The process from day one, when we went into the very first box, we have been seeing numerous anomalies and they have been coming to front. I believe that has already been done and it now up to the CARICOM team and the CEO to send that report through to the Commission”, she said.
Her fellow APNU+AFC Candidate and Tabulation Agent, Daniel Seeram reminded that GECOM is still investigating the issue of the more than 30 ballot boxes that contained no official documents of the Commission. Those boxes are all from the lower East Coast Demerara area.
PPP Candidate and Tabulation Agent, Dr. Frank Anthony said he does not believe that the Observation Reports can cast any shadow over the results of the recount.
He said the Recount Order was very clear and the Chief Elections Officer must now prepare his report for submission to the Commission.
According to Dr. Anthony, “the CEO is going to put together his report and present that to GECOM and GECOM will then do a declaration”, adding that it is very clear that the results from the recount match the Statements of Poll that were presented by his party and not what was declared by the Returning Officer for Region Four.
Meanwhile, Leader of the Liberty and Justice Party, Lennox Shuman who could be heading to Parliament for the Joinder list, said the three small parties that will share that one seat intend to hold the next government accountable.
“We will seek the same kind of accountability that was asked of this outgoing administration, if I am to be so presumptuous, is what we will have to do to the incoming administration to ensure that that administration is held to account to the people and we can never go down this path again”, Shuman said.
Based on the undeclared results, the People’s Progressive Party has picked up 50.69% of the votes cast while its closest rival, the APNU+AFC bagged 47.34% of the votes.
In total based on the tabulation, the PPP won 233,336 votes while 217,920 persons voted for the APNU+AFC. The remaining small parties together won 8,852 votes with the Liberty and Justice Party leading that pack with its 2,657 votes.
A total of 4,211 ballots were rejected.
The incumbent APNU+AFC is sticking to its claims of electoral fraud.
In a recent statement, the coalition said GECOM needs to remove all of the votes that cannot be validated from the recount.
The coalition has been pointing to a number of anomalies uncovered during the recount that it believes brings the entire elections into question.
The President has said he will abide by whatever declaration is made by the Elections Commission Chairman.
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