Verification of poll statements ongoing

The verification process of the Statements of Poll (SoP) of last month’s general elections being undertaken by the APNU is to be made public later this week.

A report on the process, which is being undertaken on a stage by stage basis by the coalition, will be made public on Thursday when the body holds a press briefing on the exercise, an APNU source said last evening. The source said that the team which is undertaking the exercise is being given time to carry out its work to ensure accuracy.

The Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) last week made available to the political parties, scanned copies to the SoPs amid protests by the APNU. Gecom released scanned copies of the documents on disks and the APNU as well as the Alliance for Change (AFC) have been carrying out their comparisons of the SoPs with their own figures which they collected on elections day.

The AFC was expected to complete its verification exercise over the weekend. Party leader Khemraj Ramjattan told Stabroek News that the AFC was generally satisfied with the SoPs, even though there were several insignificant discrepancies.

Last Friday evening APNU’s Dr Rupert Roopnarine told supporters of the coalition at a public meeting at Stabroek Market Square that the APNU was forging ahead with the verification of the SoPs which the coalition has received from Gecom.

He said APNU remains unhappy with the format in which the SoPs were delivered and added that the coalition will not rest until it sees the actual copies of the statements of poll.