Guyana Elections 2020

Although the incumbent APNU+AFC coalition has publicly maintained that the elections were not credible, its Prime Ministerial candidate Khemraj Ramjattan on Wednesday told members of his staff that he is prepared to accept the results of the national recount of votes cast at the March 2nd polls which show a victory for the opposition PPP/C.

Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield yesterday failed to submit the report of the valid votes cast in the March 2 General and Regional Elections (GRE) in direct contravention of a directive from Chairperson Justice Claudette Singh.

The Court of Appeal application filed yesterday to prevent the Chief Election Officer (CEO) from submitting a report to enable a final declaration from the March 2 polls is contending that the Guyana Elections Com-mission (GECOM) deviated from the order that guided the national vote recount and failed to determine “final credible” results.

According to the general secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Bharrat Jagdeo today’s hearing at the Court of Appeal is the last episode in the APNU+AFC Coalition’s quest to disenfranchise Guyanese voters.

The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) has expressed its complete lack of faith in the embattled Chief Election Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield, to execute his mandate and describes his reports as prejudiced and not credible.

Just over 100 APNU+AFC supporters took to the streets of New Amsterdam yesterday in a march to press Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chairperson Claudette Singh to declare the coalition the winner of the 2020 general and regional elections and they were told to prepare for a long fight. 

Embattled Chief Election Officer, Keith Lowenfield  is to present his declaration of results today to the Elections Commission for final certification of a winner of the March 2nd general elections though there are doubts about whether he will comply with the specific instructions from the Chair, Claudette Singh.

More than three months after the March 2 polls, Guyana’s Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield has been ordered to prepare a declaration of the results of the General and Regional Elections (GRE) using the data generated from the National Recount.

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) says it is “extremely happy” with yesterday’s decision of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to direct the Chief Election Officer to prepare a report, using the recount results, in keeping with Section 96 of the Representation of the Act, Chapter 1:03.

Coalition campaign manager, Joseph Harmon last evening suggested that the Chief Election Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield can only submit a report for declaration on the votes he has deemed to be valid. 

The Organization of  American States (OAS) has welcomed the decision yesterday of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to declare the results of the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections based on the data compiled by the national recount.

In a blistering report the three-person scrutinizing team from CARICOM declared that the National Recount of votes and by extension the March 2, 2020 general and regional elections were sufficiently transparent to reflect the will of the Guyanese people and form the basis for the declaration of the results.

Having declared that CARICOM was the most “important interlocutor” on Guyana’s elections, caretaker President David Granger will now have to say where he stands on the report of its observer team which stated yesterday that the recount of the March 2nd elections provides a basis for the long-awaited declaration of a result.

During the National Recount the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) allowed itself to be manipulated by the two larger political parties and violated the rights of the Guyanese electorate.

A New and United Guyana (ANUG) yesterday accused rogue elements at Gecom of collaborating with APNU+AFC to have the March 2nd general elections annulled and it said the lawful course for Commission Chair Claudette Singh is to declare the winner of the polls.

With hundreds of Statements of Poll for District Four still to be verified, Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo mounted the second floor of the Ashmins building on March 5th and shouted out fake numbers to the horror of party agents, plunging the March 2nd elections into months of crisis which still remains to be resolved up to today.

Having completed and delivered their report to CARICOM on observations of the recount of the March 2nd General and Regional elections here, the three-member CARICOM team is today scheduled to leave for their respective home countries.

With all of the ballot boxes now recounted after a gruelling 33-day exercise, the unofficial final result shows that the opposition PPP/C will win the presidency and 33 seats in Parliament with the incumbent APNU+AFC securing 31 and the list joining parties of LJP, ANUG and TNM capturing one.

A deciding vote by GECOM Chair Claudette Singh yesterday saw the inclusion of votes from 29 ballot boxes that had been under question, virtually sealing an election victory for the PPP/C and setting the stage for certification of the final result.

With the conclusion of the recount process showing victory for the opposition PPP/C, the incumbent APNU+AFC yesterday claimed that there had been massive fraud and said it was putting GECOM “on notice”  that illegal votes cannot produce a valid result.