Georgetown: Without any consideration for Chief Justice Roxane George orders that the Returning Officer (RO) for Electoral District Four must use the original Statements of Poll (SOPs) he received from Polling Places in the Region in his tabulation to come to a declaration, the RO completed the count of votes Friday evening after 19:00hrs amidst objections from several political parties as well as international and local observers.
Lenox Shuman the presidential candidate for the Liberty and Justice Party described the process as a travesty.
Speaking with reporters outside of GECOM‘s Cowan Street headquarters, Shuman said “what is happening here should disturb all of us. There is a clear indication that the numbers in the sheets have been altered in the favour of the APNU+AFC.”
The “sheet” he was referring to are the Statements of Polls (SOPs) which Chief Justice Roxane George ordered Mingo to make visible to all stakeholders during the tabulation of votes.
GECOM has attempted to facilitate compliance with this requirement by making available a scanner, projector and “screen” so that the SOPs in Mingo possession can be seen by those present.
According to Shuman in some cases the number of votes recorded on some SOPs exceeded the number of Electors for that polling station.
“It is a travesty…when you look APNU numbers are clearly inflated…in some cases twos have become threes and zeros have become eights. What comes out of this cannot be good for Guyana. At some point we have to consider what is in the best interest of the country,” he stressed.
Shuman called out the Alliance for Change and Working People’s Alliance for being part of a process he labeled corrupt.
“A party that has championed change has become voiceless. There are scant words from them other than in support of this corrupt process,” he said of the AFC while lamented that the party that Dr Walter Rodney formed is actively participating in a process that is not legitimate.
Shuman ‘ s claims were supported by opposition nominated commissioner Sase Gunraj who said that RO Mingo was preventing all questions.
At the Chief Justice’s intervention on Friday, Mr Mingo’s attorney Neil Boston, in the presence of the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Justice (Rt’d) Claudette Singh, undertook to abide by the clear judgment of the court for the SOPs to be displayed.
The parties have already complained that the numbers being called out are fictitious numbers which do not match the copies of the SOPs they have; the Judge said she was not concerned with that.
But the Chairman of the Commission said the declaration can be challenged in a recount.
The GECOM Chair said she was pleased with the outcome of the proceedings before the court and she said there would be compliance and that the Statements of Poll would be displayed. The Chief Justice said her ruling was intended to avoid any doubts about the credibility of the process.
She was clear that the SOPs must be seen by those entitled to be there.
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