In a video broadcast on its Facebook page yesterday, the governing APNU+AFC coalition yesterday maintained it had won the March 2nd elections even while stating that there was major fraud, prompting a sharp riposte from the opposition PPP.
In the video, former Director-General of the Ministry of the Presidency Joseph Harmon said the national recount has so far seen a number of discrepancies.
“Our agents have noted an alarming number of discrepancies that lead us to conclude from our preliminary reports that the results from the initial tally of votes are not credible. The declarations made and on record at the Guyana Elections Commission is that the majority of votes cast in the March 2nd, 2020 elections were cast in favour of the list of candidates for the APNU and the AFC. Questions of the credibility of the process arose and it was agreed that a recount of the valid votes will be done in all ten electoral districts. APNU and AFC made it pellucid that any recount will reveal significant irregularities committed by the PPP amounting to electoral fraud and that the result should put into serious doubt the fictitious statements presented by the PPP and shared with the international community,” Harmon said.
Harmon stated that as of May 22nd, a preliminary report by the party has unearthed “qualitative irregularities” in some 86,387 votes.
Among these irregularities he said are missing poll books and voting for dead persons and those residing out of the country.
“Our investigations have revealed that the electoral theft has been unravelling and over 86,000 votes cannot be accounted for. This goes directly to the credibility of the elections. The unaccounted votes are evidence of a fraudulent attempt to suppress the will of the majority of the Guyanese people who voted for the APNU+AFC,” Harmon stated.
As the process continues, Harmon said that the party is expecting to discover more discrepancies.
“From the trends, we have noted, we expect to uncover more instances of fraud by the end of this process. But make no mistake, the APNU+AFC Coalition has been and remains confident that we were successful at the polls. We must, however, stay focused on the validity of each vote, which gives credibility to the process. We cannot allow electoral fraud by the PPP to prevail over our democratic process,” he said.
Harmon further charged that during the process, a number of issues regarding the ballot papers were also discovered including a number of counterfoils and ballot papers from one area in another.
“We are looking at a process that is caught in unresolved issues. For years, we know that the PPP/C has been stealing your votes, your democratic right to elect a president, a government that will govern all and not just a few. The evidence being unearthed is as clear as day,” Harmon said.
Another issue, Harmon highlighted was the reported unstamped ballots from the disciplined services.
“It was clear that the majority of the disciplined services were in support of the APNU+AFC and it would appear as it was a calculated effort to ensure that those votes, that they knew would come our way, would be deemed invalid,” he said.
APNU+AFC has been lambasted for making outlandish claims about elections fraud when there were no such reports from 2,339 polling stations where its agents were present. Its claims have seen as a last-gasp strategy to counter the recount of votes from the March 2nd elections which is half-way finished. The recount came after concerns that efforts were underway to rig the general elections in favour of the incumbent APNU+AFC.
Last night the PPP lashed back at Harmon’s comments.
“Although the National Recount Exercise is proceeding slowly, with every passing day it establishes not
only the magnitude of the fraud committed (for APNU+AFC) but also confirms the accuracy of the Statements of Poll that the PPP/C made public. As a result, the picture is becoming clearer that the PPP/C won the March 2nd Regional and General Elections”, it said.
It derided the allegations made by Harmon.
“These allegations range from migrant and dead people voting, false ballots, unstamped ballots, missing list of electors, missing poll books, and a host of other irregularities, all of which he dumps at the doorsteps of the PPP/C. He accused the entire GECOM machinery that worked on Elections Day, APNU+AFC polling agents, and the seven (7) other Political Parties that participated in the elections of being in a conspiracy with the PPP/C to enable the PPP/C to rig the elections. Yet in the end, he said that the APNU+AFC has won those very Elections …
“For the record, the PPP/C wishes to reject this litany of false and unstable ramblings of Harmon. GECOM can no longer remain silent on this matter. We call upon the Chairperson of GECOM to respond to this devious and malicious attack by Harmon on GECOM’s integrity and the integrity of thousands of Guyanese who worked honestly and diligently to deliver free and fair elections-day activities which have been so certified by all the accredited Local and International Observers Teams. Even the President endorsed election-day activities as free, fair, and orderly”.
