Two more refute police data on ‘overseas’ voting

Two more persons, Alan Gomes and Christina Seetaram, have verified that they were in the country and voted at the March 2, 2020 Regional and General Elections contrary to claims of the APNU+AFC.

Alan Deon Gomes, whose name was published on a list of persons purportedly out of the country on March 2, visited Kaieteur News with his identification card and passport to prove that the information is false. This paper verified that Gomes last reentered Guyana from Suriname in July of 2019 and had not been stamped out as leaving the country since then. An exit record, unmatched by a corresponding subsequent reentry is the only way that the Department of Immigration could claim that Gomes, or any other person, left Guyana and did not return during any period. Gomes told Kaieteur News that he works at Puruni, Region Seven but he travelled home to Moruca, Region one in time to cast his ballot on Elections Day.

“I had travelled home days before election, I even asked by boss for time off to go home and vote,” he said.
Another voter, Christina Seetaram confirmed with this newspaper that she cast her ballot at the St. Paul’s Retreat Centre (Polling Station 414121[e]), Vryheid’s Lust, East Coast Demerara on Elections Day. Her serial number, 172, was, however, listed on the recount observation report for the Retreat Centre ballot box as one of the persons an APNU+AFC agent had said to be out of the country on March 2, but still listed as voting. Seetaram told Kaieteur News that she indeed had travelled out the country but returned since last year.

Late last month, in a letter to the GECOM Chairperson Justice Retired Claudette Singh, APNU+AFC campaign co-chair Joseph Harmon had claimed that “During the recount, agents of APNU+AFC made objections at the counting stations to the voting and counting of ballots by certain electors after the counting agents indicated that the said electors were recorded as having voted at the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections. Our investigations have revealed that electors were outside the jurisdiction and were recorded as voted.”

A list containing 207 names was submitted along with that letter, was forwarded to the Commissioner of Police. A list containing 172 of those names, including Gomes, was returned and ‘confirmed’ as being out the country on Elections Day by the Deputy Chief Immigration Officer, Ewart Wray. Kaieteur News saw and published a subsequent list submitted on 30 May that had 310 persons.

To date, 26 persons have come forward to refute the names submitted by the Commissioner of Police, Leslie James to the GECOM Chair, Justice Claudette Singh to confirm claims of fraudulent voting by David Granger’s APNU+AFC Coalition. The Police Force had responded to the first article by Kaieteur News featuring just three persons, insisting on the accuracy of the information given to GECOM. Requests for comment by the GPF on subsequent articles have gone unanswered.