Georgetown: Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Justice (Rtd) Claudette Singh has voted against releasing of the Statements of Polls (SoPs) for Region Four to the Commissioners, General Secretary of the Peoples Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) Bharrat Jagdeo said during a press briefing Friday.
Jagdeo said that in 2011 there was a similar request made by the Coalition APNU/AFC, and this request was granted.
He explained that such acts are against transparency while noting that it appears as if the government nominated commissioners are fearful that if it is released that it will match the opposition SOP’s which show that the PPP won the March, 2, 2020 regional and national elections.
“It’s strange, that this was not for the release of the SOP’s for the public, but for the GECOM Commissioners and this was not even granted,” Jagdeo said. “They are so scared that the SOP’s will show the fraud.”
Jagdeo believes that everything that ensures a high level of transparency and credibility in the recount process is being sidelined by the GECOM Chair.
He disclosed that ten resolutions were submitted by PPP Commissioners during the Commission’s meeting on Friday to determine where exactly the Chairperson stood on the various issues as it relates to the expeditious and transparent recount of the votes.
Jagdeo related that his party was very disappointed that when the Resolutions were put to vote, the Chairman generally took a position that was contrary to the process being conducted in an expeditious and transparent manner.
The General Secretary said the Chairperson also voted against live streaming the recount process, although many other stakeholders were clamoring for a live stream of the recount.
Jagdeo said that his party had submitted a proposal for the recount to be done in fourteen days, but the Chair agreed instead to have the recount in 25 days and promised to do a further review.
This, Jagdeo said would be problematic since the Observers had indicated that they would not be able to come here for more than two weeks.
Jagdeo said the plan therefore is to frustrate the Observers so they would not come to oversee the recount of the votes.
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