The planned National Recount has not yet started but the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has accused the incumbent coalition of planning to derail the process by creating “confusion” and signaled a willingness to declare Irfaan Ali President if such confusion ensues.
“We have solid intelligence that they know if the votes are counted cleanly the PPP will win so they intend to create confusion…the plan is not to conclude the count in Region Four by creating confusion in the other Regions,” PPP/C general secretary Bharrat Jagdeo repeatedly stated during a virtual press conference yesterday.
The tabulation of votes cast in Region Four, Guyana’s largest electoral district has been a source of contention and the subject of several court challenges since March 5. Returning Officer Clairmonte Mingo has made two declarations of the results yet no accepted result exist. The first declaration was vitiated by the High Court while the second has been deemed “not credible” by contesting parties and observers.
According to Jagdeo with ballot boxes for four regions open simultaneously the opportunities for confusion increase.
Asked if his party is willing to declare Alli President in the manner that Juan Guaido in Venezuela has been declared President in Venezuela, Jagdeo said that his party has promised the international community that they will wait for an official declaration.
He however noted that “should they tamper with this process or alternatively try to sabotage it to return to the old Mingo declaration, then this is a possibility, this is a very real possibility.”
The long delayed recount is at the centre of a raging crisis over the elections that has seen accusations of rigging directed at key members of the GECOM Secretariat and warnings from the international community that sanctions could be applied if the tabulation was not credible and a President was sworn in on that basis.
It has been proposed that the recount should be televised or live streamed on social media to allow for transparency but Guyana’s laws prescribes that every person attending the counting of votes shall maintain and shall not communicate any information obtained at the count as to the list of candidates for which any vote has been given.
