Georgetown: After days of street protests and weeks of waiting, A partnership for national Unity has finally released its report following scrutiny of the Election Day Statement of Polls handed over to the party by the Guyana Elections Commission.
In that report one of the first glaring inconsistencies that APNU points to is that, “The party votes on the Statements of Polls does not total to the votes attributed to each party in GECOM final count.”
According to APNU given the discrepancies uncovered “the final election results and the results gazetted by GECOM are incorrect.”
According to the APNU report Deputy Regional Officers prepared several SOPs that were unsigned by presiding officers or polling agents, “these SOPs were then scanned and distributed to the contesting parties via compact disc with the stated communiqué that the Statements of Polls were copies of originals…Cleary false.”
APNU contends that GECOM absence of a defined policy on use of SOPs allows for the use of copies of SOPs instead of originals in the final count; “as a result GECOM does not have in storage original Statement of Polls for multiple polling stations.”
The coalition of parties also says that as a result of a final list of polling stations never being provided by GECOM to the political parties and stakeholders that matched the polling stations used on Election Day “GECOM is unable to provide a final list of the private residences used as polling stations.”
APNU is also contending that Illegible copies were used by GECOM in tabulating and computing the SOPs ultimately resulting in flawed results being published coupled with the fact that the SOPs were ultimately designed making it susceptible to fraud and manipulation.
The coalition of parties also pointed to what it calls forged signatures on several SOPs particularly in Regions three and four that also represents the locations with the largest bloc of the electorate.
“Aside from the illegal repetitive signatures by one individual on several Statements of Poll, it seemed standard practice for more than one person to write up the SOP. The possibilities for manipulation are then increased, especially as it relates to the totaling of the votes in column two of the SOP.”
APNU said that the discrepancies demonstrates that it could potentially have over 5,000 more votes in Region Four with PPP/C votes declining in Region Four by a similar amount.
“Also we cannot rule out Statements of Polls being introduced after the elections and included in the final count that were not on any List of Polling Stations provided to the contesting parties due to the non-existence of a final list of Polling Stations.”
APNU further states and contends as “As evidenced in Region One where APNU won one seat by having one more vote than PPP/C in the Regional Seat Allocation…The evidence is clear that each vote is material and the introduction of a single or a few unlisted and/or manufactured SOP could change the seats allocated to a party.”
The collation has since concluded that, “Our limited review of the SOPs discovered significant discrepancies as noted in the foregoing, along with the substantial impact the irregularities very likely had on determining who won the presidency and parliamentary seat allocation.”
It says too that along with other differences such as the SOPs numbers not matching the final numbers published by GECOM, “the abnormal results from the use of private residences and the non-existence of a final list of Polling Stations matching Polling Stations used on Elections Day; it is our opinion that the Election Results assembled by GECOM does not provide a reliable basis to determine who won the Presidency.”
The party has since said that it believes that “serious flouting of the stated policies and procedures of GECOM occurred, along with misconduct and illegal actions by GECOM representatives.”
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