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FM
Former Member

 

PPP alleges that many SOPs are fake; urges GECOM to halt declaration of results

May 14, 2015 9:25 am Category: Politics A+ / A-

PPP

 

[www.inewsguyana.com]

 

The People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) in a memorandum to the diplomatic community is contending that irregularities plagued the May 11t, 2015 General and Regional Elections including specifically the voting at Polling Stations and the processing of the voting by GECOM electoral staff and others.

In support of its contention, the PPP/C disclosed that many Statements of Polls (SOPs) received by GECOM from the ten Electoral Districts were identified as fakes.

The Party in a statement noted that at its meeting on Wednesday, Chief Elections Officer of GECOM, Mr. Keith Lowenfield, disclosed that he had noticed that many of the SOPs had formats different from the authentic SOPs that were earlier distributed to the Electoral Districts to be used by Presiding Officers to tabulate votes at Polling Stations.

“These fake SOPs did not additionally carry the endorsed signatures of GECOM that were applied to every SOP purchased by GECOM from Canada,” the PPP noted.

According to the PPP, it was also disclosed that SOPs had numbers of voters that exceeded the voters that were assigned to the Polling Stations.

As a result of this, the PPP/C has decided that GECOM should cease declaration until the following is completed:

  1. a) The establishment of the genuine nature of each SOP submitted to GECOM for the ten (10) Electoral Districts and provision of a quantitative assessment of fake SOPs;
  2. b) The total recount of all ballots cast in the May 11th, 2015 Elections;
  3. c) The earliest disclosure of these irregularities, the nature and the results of the investigation done by GECOM;
  4. d) The submission of interventions to regain confidence in the Electoral process of May 11th, 2015.

If GECOM accepts the requests by the PPP/C, then there will be no final results of the elections today.

May 14, 2015 9:25 am Category: Politics A+ / A-

PPP[www.inewsguyana.com] – The People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) in a memorandum to the diplomatic community is contending that irregularities plagued the May 11t, 2015 General and Regional Elections including specifically the voting at Polling Stations and the processing of the voting by GECOM electoral staff and others.

In support of its contention, the PPP/C disclosed that many Statements of Polls (SOPs) received by GECOM from the ten Electoral Districts were identified as fakes.

The Party in a statement noted that at its meeting on Wednesday, Chief Elections Officer of GECOM, Mr. Keith Lowenfield, disclosed that he had noticed that many of the SOPs had formats different from the authentic SOPs that were earlier distributed to the Electoral Districts to be used by Presiding Officers to tabulate votes at Polling Stations.

“These fake SOPs did not additionally carry the endorsed signatures of GECOM that were applied to every SOP purchased by GECOM from Canada,” the PPP noted.

According to the PPP, it was also disclosed that SOPs had numbers of voters that exceeded the voters that were assigned to the Polling Stations.

As a result of this, the PPP/C has decided that GECOM should cease declaration until the following is completed:

  1. a) The establishment of the genuine nature of each SOP submitted to GECOM for the ten (10) Electoral Districts and provision of a quantitative assessment of fake SOPs;
  2. b) The total recount of all ballots cast in the May 11th, 2015 Elections;
  3. c) The earliest disclosure of these irregularities, the nature and the results of the investigation done by GECOM;
  4. d) The submission of interventions to regain confidence in the Electoral process of May 11th, 2015.

If GECOM accepts the requests by the PPP/C, then there will be no final results of the elections today.

GECOM says fake SOPs were not counted; will not affect outcome of results

May 14, 2015 3:53 pm Category: latest news A+ / A-

By Radha Motielall

Gecom[www.inewsguyana.com] – Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield has reported that the recounts which had commenced were completed and that there was no change to the numbers.

He said other districts in which recounts were requested, the Returning Officers (RO) has since informed the Party that made the request, where they did not consider application favourable and they have already responded to the Party that they will not be agreeing to the recount.

The CEO was then asked what if the ROs maintain their position in the face of another request for recount, to which he responded that “I am not sure if they deny, legally what next.”

The Chief Elections Officer was also asked to explain himself in relation to the PPP/C questioning why he [Lowenfield] did not indicate to them why their request for recount was denied.

In response, he explained that he was written to and told to recount a number of boxes, with no reason being stated as to why such was being asked. He said in keeping with the communication he received, he responded in like manner denying the request, with no explanation.

On the issue of false Statements of Poll (SOPs), the Chief Elections Officer said these are being deliberated on at the level of the commission. And on this note Chairman of GECOM, Dr. Steve Surujbally said the CEO was lauded for finding the anomalies and highlighting them, and therefore he will address and fix them.

He recalled that as the SOPs came in, the Commissioners we were able to pick up that they were fake ones. The SOPs were printed by a Canadian company with a number of security features.

GECOM meanwhile stressed that the fake SOPs were not counted. In addition the media was told that the number of fake SOPs was not of that great quantum so as to disturb the outcome of the election.

Dr Surujbally further questioned what would make a person do such a reprehensible thing, which he stressed will absolutely go nowhere. However, he also accepted that it might go “there where, by those who want to make an issue.”

The Chairman added that given the close race, he can understand the importance being given to the need for checks and balances. And for this he is asking that trust be placed in the CEO to fix the anomalies.

FM

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