PSC writes GECOM Chair about concerns of electoral fraud

The Private Sector Commission (PSC) has written to Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) expressing its concerns about fraud in relation to the elections, that was perpetrated by “senior staff of GECOM” during the tabulation of votes for electoral District Four (Demerara-Mahaica).

In its letter to GECOM’s Chair, the PSC pointed out that it “is now 52 days since the General and Regional Elections have been held without the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) having concluded the count in District 4 in accordance with the law and in compliance with the decisions of the Chief Justice.”

“We are pleased that you have kept your word as regards your commitment to conduct a recount of the ballots,” the PSC said, adding

that it is imperative though that this count is credible and concluded in the shortest possible time to enable the Chief Elections Officer to provide the Commission with a credible report of the total count of all the Districts in order for the Commission to declare a final result of the elections.
Chairman of PSC, Gerry Gouveia in his letter reminded that all of the accredited observer missions have related that the count in the other districts were accurate and within the confines of the law, except for District Four which was headed by Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo. Gouveia noted that this action resulted in the current stalemate in regards to the declaration of the national results.

Priority areas
“We, therefore, urge you to accept the fact that it is only in District 4 that the verification and tabulation of the Statements of Poll for that District has not been completed in compliance with the Representation of the People’s Act. You may also wish to consider that it is only in District 4 and Districts 3, 5 and 6 that requests were made for Returning Officers of those Districts to grant a recount,” the letter stated.
The PSC proposed to the GECOM Chair, Retired Justice Claudette Singh, that the Commission considers commencing any national recount in those Districts in which a request was made for a recount. The businesses representative body also suggested that the remaining Districts could follow after the priority areas have been tabulated.
They also urged the GECOM Chair to implement a system to complete the recount in the shortest possible time without any controversy and interruption in a fully transparent manner. It was noted that this is imperative since a democratically elected Government is needed without any delay.
The letter outlined a number of measures that GECOM could consider going forward with the recount. Those measures include all contesting political parties be accommodated to record and monitor the recount; each ballot, as counted, is made visible to the party representatives and observers; challenges to the ballot count, as it proceeds, are permitted as provided for under the law; challenges to the ballot count are flagged for further verification at the end of the count; and the GECOM officials who have been publicly identified to have acted in violation of the prescribed legal procedures, namely, Clairmont Mingo and Roxanne Myers, are excluded from participating in the recount in order to avoid any further controversy. On Friday during a meeting at GECOM, it was stated that Mingo will not be part of the recount process.