Keeping up its barrage of attacks on the quality of last Monday’s general elections, the PPP/C today called for the resignation of the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission, Dr Steve Surujbally.
International observer groups and local bodies have given the elections a clean bill of health.
Reports are that the PPP/C, which lost the election by a narrow margin is preparing to file an election petition to challenge the results.
The PPP/C press release follows:
Prior to the May 11th General and Regional Elections, the PPP/C raised concerns both publicly and privately with the GECOM Chairman, Commission and Secretariat, the advance assessment teams of the UN, Commonwealth and the Carter Centre, the diplomatic community, and subsequently with the International Observer Missions with regard to the partiality of the GECOM machinery.
The recruitment of polling staff connected to the APNU+AFC coalition was known and the PPPC consistently raised its concerns publicly months before during the recruitment and training periods.
Fears were also expressed about the removal of the foreign IT Specialist at a critical time just two weeks before the elections and the denial of requests for public disclosures of GECOM Elections Day staff. This lack of transparency and willingness to enhance public trust and confidence by GECOM in the face of blatant infiltration of the machinery by known APNU+AFC activists is an indictment.
Our public positions were supported with conclusive evidence that a number of irregularities were carried out on elections day and the period immediately thereafter particularly multiple voting, creation of fraudulent and fictitious SOP’s etc, to such an extent that any government formed on the basis of declared results (without a recount ) would not reflect the will of the people of Guyana.
Our positions remain the same today in the face of the refusal of GECOM to conduct the recount of a close-finish race, the PPP/C considers the APNU-AFC government as de facto coming in on fraudulent elections.
These events, not surprising, have contributed to the loss of confidence in the GECOM machinery and more particularly it’s Chairman, Dr. Surujbally. The PPP/C calls for the immediate resignation of Dr. Surujbally as Chairman.
The PPP/C has collected and will continue to collect further evidence to file an elections petition.
The PPP/C also condemns the wide scale provocations currently being meted out to its supporters by the APNU-AFC supporters.We are aware of the many acts of the APNU-AFC coalition even at this early stage events of provocation, discrimination, and persecution are taking place.The PPP/C has established a hotline number for the public to call in and report such incidences.
Furthermore we call on the international and diplomatic communities to condemn such acts.
The PPP/c wishes to assure victims of Election Day violence that it will actively pursue compensation for loss of vehicles and property.
The party urges its supporters to remain mobilized for further action and committed to the defence of democracy in Guyana.
The PPP/C will continue to update the country on our evolving position.
