GECOM exposes Team Mohamed’s fake SoPs, orders Police probe

Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Public Relations (PR) Officer Yolanda Ward, on Monday night sought to swiftly deal with several elections misinformation being peddled online including the posting of a fake Statement of Poll (SoP) by one of the contesting political parties, as well as issues posted online about foreign Commonwealth nationals being able to participate in the voting process, multiple voters having the same address, and continued speculations on dead voters still being listed on the Official List of Electors (OLE).

Speaking at GECOM’s first press conference after the close of polls on Monday, Ward urged voters to rely only on official results and clarifications issued by the Commission, even as she noted that the body is aware of the circulation online of an SoP purporting to show votes cast in the favour of the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party headed by United States (US)-sanctioned businessman Azruddin Mohamed. “I want to urge persons and political parties to desist from doing that,” Ward cautioned. “We have issued several appeals in relation to this matter, and I want to remind persons that GECOM is the only authority to release the election results. If you’ve noticed, we have stayed away from preliminary results. We want to ask persons in particular to rely on the tool that is legally provided for by way of GECOM’s website and to ensure that they follow from that tool and so that they are not misguided by what is published out there. It is important for persons, particularly the electorate as a whole, to be only guided by what GECOM publishes in relation to any kind of results for these elections.”
In a subsequent statement, GECOM noted that it would be calling in the police to probe the party’s publication of the fake SoP. Suspiciously, the incriminating SoP was posted on Mohamed’s personal social media page “Team Mohamed’s” at 18:01hrs, just one minute after the close of polls on Monday. GECOM noted that given the time of publication of those documents, it would have been impossible for the counting of the ballots in any polling station to have commenced.
“This despicable act can only be seen as creating a platform on which the Political Party associated with the Team Mohamed Facebook Page can create the impression that it has been successful at the polls,” the statement said.

Misinformation
As pertains to another social media case where issues were raised about Bangladeshi nationals being issued “Commonwealth” ID cards by GECOM, Ward reminded that the laws provided for Commonwealth citizens residing in Guyana for one year or more to be able to vote at an election and as such are legally eligible to be added to the voters list by GECOM and issued with ID cards.
“Under Guyana’s laws, Commonwealth citizens residing legally in the country for one year are issued ID. Under the National Registration Act where the electoral process begins the eligibility for registration is that you must be a Guyanese citizen by birth, descent, naturalisation or a citizen of a Commonwealth country living in Guyana for one year or more. That is what the law provides for. And once your name has been extracted onto a list of electors you are eligible to vote,” Ward explained.
Ward also clarified issues circulating online about voters who have the same address, noting there is nothing in the law preventing multiple voters being at the same address. “What matters is that the registration process was followed in compliance with the law,” Ward related. As pertains to claims of names of deceased persons still being present on the voters list. Ward reminded that voters legally cannot be arbitrarily removed without proper documentation.

Names cannot be removed
Ward emphasised “names can only be removed with an official death certificate submitted to the General Registrar’s Office (GRO). Without it, names may remain until the next list revision cycle. This is a legal safeguard to prevent wrongful removal.” She further noted that GECOM receives death certificates directly from the Registrar’s Office, which are then flagged and processed according to legal provisions. Additional opportunities for adjustments also exist during the claims and objections period, when individuals may file objections to names on the list.
Addressing public fears of electoral fraud, Ward stressed that multiple safeguards are in place at polling stations to prevent voter impersonation.
“Of course, as you know, we have published the multiple safeguards in place at polling stations to guard against any possible impersonation,” she stated.
It was since 2019 that the High Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for GECOM to remove qualified persons from the National Register of Registrants from which the Official List of Electors (OLE) is extracted.
In cases where voters complained of not being able to vote at particular polling stations, Ward reminded that voters can only vote at their assigned polling station where their names were listed at that polling station. As such voters turning up at any polling station where they were not listed could not have been allowed to vote at that polling station. Ward also noted that throughout the day as voting continued, GECOM addressed several issues as they arose, including issues as pertained to the positioning of the voting booth at polling stations and Police Officers being stationed inside of polling stations.