Couple whom coalition claims not in Guyana on E-Day voted for APNU/AFC

By Andrew Carmichael

Pull quote: “We voted for ourselves, nobody voted for us. Any voting time I am always around, and make sure that I go and cast my vote. I would always be the first. We voted for APNU/AFC”- Aubrey Nicholson

A Berbice couple are now perplexed after the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Coalition claimed that they were not in Guyana on Elections Day, and therefore the votes cast in their names should be invalidated.
According to the couple, they were in the country on Elections Day, and had in fact, given their votes to the coalition.

The APNU/AFC Coalition had presented a list of names of persons whom they claim were not in the country on Elections Day, and therefore any votes cast in their names should not be valid. Among those on the list are Shirley and Aubrey Nicholson of Kortberaadt Village, East Bank Berbice, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).
“I feel bad, because I know I was in Guyana at the time. When I got the message yesterday (Tuesday), I was shocked because I know we left the country on July 29 (last year) I think, and we came back on August 29,” Shirley explained.
The couple also presented their passports to prove that they were back in Guyana long before the General and Regional Elections of March 2, 2020.
In fact, Aubrey said he and his wife were the first to cast ballots at the Friends Primary School, which is situated at Sisters Village, EBB.
“Is Tuesday me wife tell me that she hear that we did not vote, but we vote. When it is voting time, I does be the first person to go down at the school at Sisters (Village), and we went and vote,” he explained.
His wife explained that a car picked them up from their home and took them to the polling station on Elections Day. She noted that there were two polling stations there, and they were the only persons at their polling station.
“Nobody did not vote for us,” she said.
Her husband went a bit further to explain that he was the first to go in. He said the polling clerk made an error and had to use a second ballot paper for him to be able to exercise his franchise.
“We voted for ourselves; nobody voted for us. Any voting time I am always around, and make sure that I go and cast my vote. I would always be the first. We voted for APNU/AFC,” he stated.
With the National Recount underway, the APNU/AFC coalition has been arbitrarily objecting to the names of persons who would have voted at various locations across the country.
The situation went so far on Tuesday that the APNU/AFC coalition objected to the names of persons who would have voted for them at the polls.
According to reports, a coalition agent (name withheld) objected to 24 names of persons who supposedly had voted at the Belladrum Secondary School, West Coast Berbice. The agent objected on the grounds that the persons, whom he identified by the corresponding GECOM serial number, were in fact out of the country. It was eventually discovered that the ballot box in question contained 250 votes for APNU/AFC, while the PPP/C had only gotten three votes from that constituency, while two other parties contesting the district had secured a combined total of three.
It would mean that the APNU/AFC agent could only be objecting to at least 19 votes cast for the APNU/AFC.
In fact, the National Recount is so far confirming the victory of the PPP/C and exposing the attempts to alter the results of the elections by Returning Officer for Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) Clairmont Mingo.