Mingo’s fraudulent figures cannot be used by GECOM – Jagdeo

…says declarations discredited by ongoing recount

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has stated that the contentious declarations made by embattled Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo can no longer be held in abeyance, since the ongoing recount has proven that he has inflated figures in favour of the incumbent APNU/AFC Coalition.

Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), retired Justice Claudette Singh, had previously said that the report of the Chief Elections Officer (CEO), which include the March 13 declarations for Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) made by Mingo, would be held in abeyance until there are new declarations from the ongoing recount process.
But Jagdeo said, during his weekly virtual press conference on Thursday, that the national exercise has already discredited those figures declared by the RO, hence they can no longer be used by GECOM.
“It can form absolutely no basis for a future report of any CEO, or for the declaration of the [elections] results. In just eight days of recount exercise, with just less than 100 boxes counted for Region Four, a pattern has been established and supported by evidence that Mingo’s declaration was fraudulent and false, and it cannot be the basis for declaring the results of the elections. So that has been clearly established,” he asserted.
The Opposition Leader vehemently argued that none of Mingo’s “discredited figures” can be used for any report that the Chief Elections Officer presents to the Elections Commission for declaration of national results, especially in the face of all the evidence of fraud that has been unearthed since the commencement of the recount just over one week ago.
Earlier this week, Nigel Hinds, Chairman of Change Guyana – one of 11 political parties that contested the March 2 elections – in a letter, called on the GECOM Chair to remove Mingo’s “fraudulent declarations” from the Commission’s website.
Nevertheless Jagdeo, on Thursday, went on to highlight some of the fraudulent figures that have been unearthed in just 25 ballot boxes recounted for Region Four – the largest voting district in the country.
“In Region Four, the figures for APNU/AFC (were) inflated by 1,874 votes by Mingo – just in 25 boxes; and in those 25 boxes, he reduced the votes for the People’s Progressive Party (Civic – PPP/C) by 262 votes. So if we were to do an analysis of this situation, clearly Mingo, from when you compared the Statements of Poll that we put up and his fraudulent declarations, increased APNU’s votes overall for Region Four by 19,107; and in his fraudulent declaration, he reduced the People’s Progressive Party’s votes by 3,653,” the Opposition Leader stated.
According to Jagdeo, this is a net difference of more than 22,700 votes that were fraudulently given to the Coalition by the embattled Region Four RO.
Jagdeo further explained that based on the pattern used by Mingo in these first 25 ballot boxes, he would have needed to inflate over 270 ballot boxes to come up with the near 23,000 votes to give the APNU/AFC the lead in the national elections, held more than two months ago.
“In Region Four, we have a total of 879 boxes, and if we were to extrapolate the pattern that took place in those 25 boxes that were proven to be inflated for APNU, Mingo needed to only inflate 275 boxes,” he pointed out.
Nevertheless, the Opposition Leader noted that the recount continues to validate the Statements of Poll (SOPs) uploaded by the PPP/C in March, which have matched the Statements of Recount (SORs) generated by the ongoing recount, which has only completed about 15 per cent of the ballot boxes.
“For all 367 boxes that were counted (at the end of Wednesday), the Statements of Recount have all matched the Statements of Poll. There have been some small adjustments; for example, because now in the recount they’re having a second look at rejected ballots and spoiled ballots etc., you may see minor changes like one or two votes up or down for either parties,” he stated.
In fact, Jagdeo said that of the 367 boxes that were counted, 350 have already been tabulated for regions One (Barima-Waini), Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) and Four, and they show that the PPP/C has gained 24 votes and APNU lost five votes. This was as a result of instances such as in Ballot Box 4071, where the figures on the SOR and SOP differ by five votes; that is, five votes cast in favour of the PPP/C were counted for the Coalition instead. This was detected during the recount, and was corrected.
“So, outside of those minor variations, we come back to the fact that the Statements of Recount have all matched the Statements of Poll,” he asserted, while noting that the APNU/AFC still refuses to make their SOPs public.
However, the Opposition Leader has said that the APNU/AFC knew what those SOPs contained, hence their refusal to release them while still claiming victory at the March 2 polls. He added, too, that the revelations now emerging about Mingo’s fraudulent declarations have reinforced what every international organisation had claimed about the Region Four results lacking credibility.
To this end, Jagdeo, who is also the PPP General Secretary, has said that when the party takes office, Mingo will be among those persons who would have to answer for their actions in the events that followed the March 2 polling day.
In fact, he reminded that private criminal charges were already filed since March against Mingo and APNU/AFC agent Volda Lawrence.
Lawrence, who is also the Chair of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) – the largest party in the APNU faction of the Coalition — was the only party agent who had signed off on the first declaration made by Mingo on March 6, which sparked outrage and even a court action.