Georgetown: General Secretary of the Peoples Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) Bharrat Jagdeo castigated caretaker President David Granger over comments that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is “bound to accept” the concocted figures presented by the Chief Elections Officer for final declaration.
President David Granger’s Monday night during an online radio interview with APNU/AFC supporter Mark Benschop accused the PPP/C of electoral fraud.
“It shows that he is delusional, out of touch and fed propaganda by his staff that he readily imbibes because he wants the same outcome, he wants to hang on to power illegally knowing that he has lost the elections… there is nothing decent about that Mr. Granger,” Jagdeo noted.
Jagdeo underscored that the President never acknowledged that it was Clairmont Mingo acting as the Returning Officer for District Four that was the primary source of the fraud that led to the delay in the declaration of the election results.
Further, Jagdeo said Granger also failed to acknowledge that the Country’s Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield was prepared to make a declaration on the basis of that fraudulent report from Mingo and it is the same CEO who recently provided a report which invalidates over 115,000 voters.
During the radio programme Granger embraced and endorsed this fraudulent report from the CEO.
“I believe he has God-given authority because it is not in law that he has any authority to invalidate valid votes on the basis of allegations by APNU… if it was the other way around would APNU have accepted that one person could unilaterally invalidate the votes from a full quarter of persons who voted?… They would have never accepted that because there would have been trouble in the streets,” Jagdeo added.
Jagdeo said Granger has been spewing propaganda that is synchronized by APNU+AFC Campaign Manager Joseph Harmon that he would not concede defeat at the polls.
On the Radio Programme Granger reasoned that “the Commission is bound to accept the report of the Chief Elections Officer…there is no other authority to prepare such a report. He is mandated to prepare such a report, the report will include a tabulation and also the validation in the form of observations.”
Jagdeo said “there seems to be a major confusion in his (Granger’s) mind as to the report that should be produced in accordance with the Recount Order, which says that the Chief Elections Officer must produce a report tabulating the valid votes cast, that is the ten certificates for the ten regions in the recount, and submit this, along with summaries for the ten regions of the observation reports.
He continued: “And then the third stage is that the Commission will discuss this and decide the approach; what to instruct the CEO about what data to use. That is in contrast to the final report, the report that he has to produce after that instruction is given to him”.”
Jagdeo argued that a decision has already been made by the Commission regarding the use the recount data for the final declaration.
“I don’t know which report he is talking about, because Lowenfield already has instructions from the Commission to use the recount data,” the PPP/C General Secretary stated.
Jagdeo explained that the Lowenfield is a statutory officer who is employed by the Commission and must at all times carry out the directives given by the Commission.
Jagdeo cited the Constitution of Guyana which says that the Commission can intervene by taking the necessary action to ensure “impartiality, fairness and compliance”.
“What Lowenfield did was not impartial, it’s partial, he took a victory for the PPP/C and gave it to APNU…it is not fair, and the Commission has the authority to correct it,” Jagdeo argued.
“So when Mr Granger believes that the Commission is bound to accept the report of Lowenfield, he is simply wrong, and I hope he is advised in that regard.”
GECOM Chair, Justice Claudette Singh had directed Lowenfield to use the national elections recount figures certified by the Caricom Observer Team pursuant to Article 177 (2) (b) of the Constitution and Section 96 of the Representation of the People Act, Chapter 1:03 to compile his final report.
Lowenfield, however, did not comply with the Chair’s directive. He, instead, unilaterally invalidated over 115,000 votes and handed a ‘victory’ to the APNU/AFC. It is on this basis that the Coalition is hoping to remain in power.
You must be logged in to post a comment.