The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) will meet at 13:00h today to deliberate on the report submitted, by Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield, to Chair, retired Justice Claudette Singh on Saturday.
The meeting was scheduled for 11:00h but was shifted to 13:00h at GECOM’s High Street, Kingston Headquarters.
Lowenfield’s report of the national recount of ballots shows the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) winning the March 02 General and Regional Elections by 15,416 votes, effectively ousting the incumbent A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) from office.
The PPP/C garnered a total of 233,336 votes while the APNU/AFC secured 217,920 votes.
For the new parties, the numbers are as follows: A New and United Guyana (ANUG) – 2313; Change Guyana (CG) – 1953; Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) – 2657; People’s Republic Party (PRP) – 889; The Citizen’s Initiative (TCI) – 680; The New Movement (TNM) – 244; and the United Republican Party (URP) – 360.
However, Lowenfield has come in for criticism from stakeholders, including the PPP/C, after he strayed from his mandate – that is, presenting a tabulation of the votes garnered during the recount exercise and a summary of the observation reports – and went on to illegally proffer his opinions, saying that the election process may have lacked credibility and fairness.
The PPP/C has since said it was not surprised at the CEO’s apparent teaming up with the coalition to peddle these unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud.
The Commission has until tomorrow (Tuesday, June 16, 2020) to make the final declaration of the results.
