Police now say “migrant voters” travelled “illegally”

In an astounding turn of events, the Guyana Police Force on Monday claimed their statement that verified APNU/AFC’s allegation that 172 voters were actually abroad cannot be debunked by the persons proving that they were, in fact, in Guyana on March 2 even though their passports have no stamps, because persons travel “illegally”.

The GPF is now following GECOM to insist their employees are corrupt so as to uphold the People’s National Congress’s (PNC) wild assertions designed to support rigging.
The Force in a statement stated that “the administration of the Force iterates that migration data produced by the Immigration Department of the Guyana Police Force is generated through its record system which includes an Electronic Border Management System.”
In addition, the Force stated that the system, however, does not record persons who travelled illegally.
“Hence, the Guyana Police Force stands by the information provided to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM),” the GPF added. This statement has since caused much debate as to the Guyana Police Force’s motive in making such a claim.
In a unilateral decision, GECOM Chair, Retired Justice Claudette Singh had written to Police Commissioner Leslie James in his capacity as the Chief Immigration Officer, asking him to probe the allegations made by APNU/AFC that persons who voted were actually out of the country.
Attached to the letter was a list of those names of alleged ‘migrant’ voters. It was reported that the Commissioner had responded to the letter and informed the GECOM Chair that 172 persons who were on the list were out of the country.
However, there is no word on whether ballots were issued for these individuals. Since the list was revealed to the public, four persons on the list have come forward proving that they never left the country and voted in person on E-Day.
The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has since said they have found hundreds of cases where persons who APNU/AFC claimed were out of the jurisdiction but voted, were, in fact, present in Guyana at the time of the March 2 General and Regional Elections.
The PPP had also related that it will seek a meeting with the GECOM Chair, regarding this development since it predicts that APNU/AFC’s claims of electoral fraud will increase over the coming days.
“It will be recalled that in a sample of 87 ballot boxes on the East Bank Demerara, Mingo fraudulently gifted to APNU+AFC over 5000 votes. In order to detract from Mingo’s fraud and in their frantic effort to prevent the declaration of the final results of the recount, the likes of Joseph Harmon will manufacture more ridiculous allegations, such as that 96,000 ballots cast are invalid,” the PPP added.
Also expressing concern over the GECOM Chair’s letter was Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) Presidential Candidate, Lennox Shuman. During his engagement with the media, Shuman expressed concern over GECOM undertaking to ask the Police Commissioner to investigate APNU/AFC claims.
He said that based on the legal advice his party received, GECOM is acting out of its remit.
According to him, Singh never revealed to stakeholders that she had written to the Police Commissioner to have the issue investigated.
According to him, Justice Singh has shown a selective attitude towards investigating wrongdoing, since the recount has shown that Region Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo manipulated numbers to give APNU/AFC a victory, yet the Chairperson has not asked the police to investigate this. According to him, the Chairperson is going down a slippery slope.