CEO report must clearly reflect electoral irregularities

AS the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield prepares to submit his report on the first phase of the recount, former Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Captain and APNU+AFC candidate Daniel Seeram has stated that he expects that all the anomalies highlighted during the physical count will be presented.

The CEO will present his report to the commission on or before June 13, 2020. Seeram sat down on the Guyana Chronicle’s Vantage Point on Thursday to state his experience, observations and advice coming out of the recently concluded first phase of the recount.

“The CEO, in his wisdom, I don’t think if he’s doing a comprehensive report, has the right to leave out any of this information from his report because this is information that would have been reported by his staff and documented in those observation reports. Each and every act that was recorded to have been committed during the recount process would have to be put into that report and placed before the commission for deliberation,” he stated.

Seeram, who served as a tabulation agent during the recount, was amongst those who listened to every single observation report and Statement of Recount (SoR) being read out loud as GECOM recorded the information daily.

“We started to open the ballot boxes and at first there were irregularities and then we realised that Guyanese people were cheated. We started to see these irregularities move from just minor irregularities to statistical anomalies and then they went from statistical anomalies to some huge discrepancies, which all graduated to the level of where we are right now, of systematic fraud,” he said.

In summary, the party pinpointed data indicating some 7,929 instances of irregularities, which they believe directly affects the validity of 257,173 votes.

The anomalies include counterfoils and ballots carrying the same number; ballots for one region cast in another; ballots cast for the dead and persons who have migrated; persons voting without proper identification; persons voting outside of their districts without employment documents; large numbers of improperly stamped ballots at locations where disciplined services members voted; missing poll books and documents from one polling station being found in the ballot boxes of another and ballot boxes with no statutory documents.

As a former GDF Captain, Seeram said that members of the disciplined services have expressed to him great concern about what took place with their ballots , which were amongst those improperly stamped.

As it relates to the issue of those who migrated, Seeram stated: “We were asked by GECOM to supply the evidence for this, we did. Over 90 per cent of that evidence came back approved and corrupt and we’re still awaiting GECOM to tell us about this evidence.”

Seeram believes that the number of irregularities highlighted are enough to impact the outcome of the elections and therefore must be acted upon and must be taken seriously by the commission responsible for credible elections in Guyana.

He said that all party representatives present, as well as local and international observers, have witnessed the host of missing documents or ballots affected by the acts or inaction of GECOM staff and no one can deny this.

“We didn’t bring these issues up because we made them up in any way, these are issues that came directly from the ballot boxes; these are issues of great concern and give great bearing upon the credibility of these elections and they have the utmost importance to be taken into consideration by GECOM when they deliberate and then further decide on a declaration in the coming days. For someone to say that these Observation Reports are being made more than they are, that person is stifling their conscience and ultimately doesn’t have the betterment of Guyana at heart,” he said.