Georgetown: After a press release sent out by A Partnership for National Unity – APNU that they have won the elections, GECOM chairman Dr Steve Surujbally Tuesday morning restated that the commission has the sole right to declare the elections results and anyone doing anything else is “playing a dangerous game.”
Both the major political groups have issued statements expressing optimism of winning yesterday’s pivotal general elections. Surujbally’s statement came amid the absence of any preliminary results from GECOM.
Speaking a press conference this morning Surujbally said that the commission has to follow the law adding that it could only release results when the statement of polls have been brought in.
“This nation has followed the law…we would not work outside of the law. The nation has to wait,” Surujbally said.
Meantime, Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield said that the commission started receiving statement of polls at around 11 pm yesterday. He said at the moment the commission is processing results from Districts 4, 5, 6, 2 and three. Heavy rains in some interior locations is delaying the return of statement of polls.
GECOM had promised the issuing of preliminary results at 11 last night but later postponed this. No results have so far been issued. This was also the case in the 2011 elections, leading to calls for a change in the laws governing how the results are handled. The current laws require the presentation of the physical statement of poll to GECOM for validation of results.
The APNU press release stated that “A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance For Change are confident that the Coalition has conducted a vertically integrated campaign and our internal monitoring has indicated that we have won these elections, and the people of Guyana have spoken definitively for change. APNU+AFC is concerned by the disinformation campaign currently being waged by the People Progressive Party- PPP that they have won the General and Regional Elections by a slim majority. The coalition regards this as mischievous, provocative and not in the best interest of the country.
APNU+AFC urges the Guyana Elections Commission to use its best efforts to provide a timely declaration of the results to put the nation at rest.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.