The Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) yesterday said it would respond to concerns raised in the findings of APNU from its examination of the Statements of Poll (SoPs) for the 2011 elections.
But it said that it has to receive a report from the coalition, adding that this is vital to its addressing the concerns raised.
“In this regard, it is essential that we point out that, at the time that the Commission agreed to make the SoPs available to the APNU for scrutiny, this Party had given the undertaking to provide Gecom with the details of its findings. Notwithstanding APNU’s public pronouncements, to date Gecom has received no official documentation on this matter from the Partnership,” Gecom said in a press release.
On Monday, APNU announced that it found misconduct and illegal acts in the holding of last year’s general elections, saying that there was no reliable basis to determine who won the presidency.
Gecom said that in view of the serious nature of the matter, it was giving the assurance to all stakeholders “that all of the concerns raised by the APNU will be considered extensively at the level of the Commission and its Secretariat in a timely manner.”
It said that immediately thereafter, the Commission will make a total and comprehensive response addressing all of the stated concerns.
“Accordingly, it is expected that the Commission will be in receipt of the documented detailed findings of the APNU, since this is fundamental to the Commission’s consideration of and response to the Party’s publicized concerns,” it added.
Among APNU’s findings, based on its independent physical verification of the SoPs coming out of the November 28, 2011 elections, was the abuse of private residences used as polling stations to inflate the votes counted for the PPP/C.
An examining team that APNU put together worked with Gecom from January 23 to February 20, during which there were five meetings to review the physical copies of the SOPs, after APNU voiced its dissatisfaction with the electronic copies that Gecom had provided earlier. The examination found that a final list of polling stations was not provided to political parties by Gecom. It found too that votes on the SOPs did not add up to the Gecom’s gazetted results.
