Georgetown: The APNU/AFC coalition member David Patterson said figures tabulated and declared by Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo “mostly” correspond with the party’s Statements of Poll (SOPs) in its possession.
Although reluctant to release the party’s SOPs for a transparency and a comparative analysis, Patterson said the Coalition still wants the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to declare a winner based on all previous declarations made.
When questioned on the reason and purpose of the recount if GECOM is to utilize old declaration that are considered fraudulent, Patterson told reporters that the elections body will have to decide what it intends to do with the declarations from the recount.
He believes releasing the Coalition’s SOPs will disturb the process with undue distraction.
Patterson said while the Coalition will not release its SOPs, it intends to produce its own tabulation at the completion of each district in the recount exercise.
He noted: “The Statement of Recount matters now, we want a winner to be determined. This exercise is not a question of comparison, it is about determining a winner and a next government,” he said.
Patterson said coming out from the recount there are a number of anomalies that put a large number of votes for the Coalition in jeopardy.
Notwithstanding anomalies and the fraudulent declaration by district four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, Patterson was adamant that the previous declarations should be used to declare a winner and all anomalies be addressed in an elections petition.
“We did address our mind to those anomalies; we always said that the list was bloated and that also makes room for malfeasance and electoral issues and challenges,” he added.
The APNU+AFC have repeatedly claimed that there are several instances where persons who are listed as dead or migrated was crossed out to have voted in the March 02, 2020 elections.
Patterson said that GECOM’s previous declarations are regarded as legal and have not been set aside and have been already used by the Chief Elections Officer to submit a report to GECOM Chairman, Retired Justice Claudette Singh.
He said those declarations should have been used to determine a winner after which the aggrieved party could file an elections petition. At the same time, he said the agreement between President David Granger and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo for a recount was not something he would discuss.
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