The opposition PPP today pilloried the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Dr Steve Surujbally for a statement to Stabroek News that it would be impossible to prove who inserted fake statements of poll into the verification process at GECOM headquarters during the May 11 General Elections.
An abridged version of the PPP statement follows:
The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) rejects completely the statement made by Guyana Elections Commission Chairman, Mr. Surujbally that:
“It would be impossible to prove who took the false Statement of Poll into the Commission … and I couldn’t see why we would proceed with an investigation”
This statement is a reflection of Gecom’s gross incompetence and an indictment of the organisation’s inability to conduct a free and fair elections unless there are reforms of Gecom’s machinery.
The statement is also a confession of the extent to which Gecom’s security procedures and quality control measure have been compromised.
Further, the statement smacks of another unilateral conclusion reached by Mr. Surujbally thus confirming grave suspicions of many about his biased judgment.
It is doubtful whether this is the conclusion of the entire Gecom or Mr. Surujbally’spersonally, if is in the latter there then this is an extremely serious and dangerous development. Mr. Lowenfield, Chief Executive Officer at Gecom must answer to this development.
The newly constituted Gecom should meet and must not allow Mr. Surujbally to get away with his shenanigans – they must demand that the police be called in to carry out a thorough investigation into this elections crime in the same way the Office of the President has launched investigations and set up its Asset Recovery Unit to go after every perceived wrong-doer and in the same way that Ramjattan is going after rogue cops in the Guyana Police Force.
The greatest and most valuable asset in our country is its human resources who want human security through participatory democracy such as free and fair elections.
If Mr. Surujablly does not value the vote by each elector then this is most unfortunate and reaffirms the loss of confidence the PPP has publicly expressed in him as Head of Gecom.
Further, if there are persons in Gecom’s employ who sought to corrupt the system with the fake ‘SOPs” with the intention of generating incorrect results to thwart the will of the electorate, then this confirms the long held view of the PPP that there is an urgent need for a overhaul of Gecom’s machinery as one to the several elections reforms that must be addressed in the not too far distant future.
