No swearing in of new President without verification of Region Four

General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Bharrat Jagdeo on Sunday told  representatives of the Organization of American States (OAS) Electoral Observer Mission that there can be no swearing in of a new President without the verification of the results for Region Four.

During the meeting, held at the Party’s headquarters, Freedom House, Robb Street, Georgetown, the PPP General Secretary raised several issues of concern with the team led by former Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding, according to a PPP release.

He advanced concerns about what he said were orchestrated and coordinated attempts by some elements within the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), in complicity with APNU+AFC Coalition members, to perpetrate electoral fraud in Guyana and subvert the will of the people.

The PPP General Secretary expressed concern too about the actions of the Chief Election Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield, which flouted an injunction restraining him from declaring the final results in the 2020 General and Regional Elections.  Jagdeo also referenced the signature of the PNCR’s Volda Lawrence on what he described as the fraudulent declaration made by the Region 4 Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo.

“The PPP General Secretary pointed out that the nine other declarations only bear the stamp and signature of the Returning Officers of those areas. As such, he questioned where this document was generated and how Lawrence’s name appeared on a crucial document. He added that this is akin to the APNU+AFC Coalition declaring the results for Region 4”, the release said.

He said that the verification process for Region Four had been running smoothly and over 400 Statements of Poll were verified, when a spreadsheet, with substantial variations in favour of the Coalition, was introduced into the process. After vociferous protests by all the political parties, Jagdeo said that the Chief Election Officer proffered assurances to all the political parties – in the presence of the international observers and members of the diplomatic corps – that the verification process would recommence and continue to completion using the Statements of Poll. Thereafter, without any continuation of the verification activities, the release said that a questionable declaration was made by the Region  4 Returning Officer. Jagdeo  stressed the need for the verification of results in Region 4 to be completed, as the only way to ensure a credible declaration of final results.