Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo believes that government-nominated Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Commissioners are deliberately seeking to obfuscate the voting process in a bid to create a basis for legal action should the coalition government suffer a defeat at the upcoming elections.
At this weekly press conference, Jagdeo said that the decision by the Chairperson of the GECOM, Justice (Retired) Claudette Singh to have thousands of persons, who did not uplift their identification cards from 2008, removed from the Official List of Electors, needs to be explained.
Jagdeo said that it was the government-nominated Commissioner, Charles Corbin who initially proffered this approach and Justice Singh is yet to provide the grounds for her arriving at that decision.
Further to that, Jagdeo said that the GECOM’s Secretariat announcing that the data from the truncated house-to-house registration process will be up for verification purposes is another attempt to “confuse” the electorate. The politician argued that since the process was terminated by the GECOM Chair, it has no legal standing. He also claimed that the data has “many” errors.
Both “illegal” actions, Jagdeo contends, are being done to create loopholes in the voting process so as to ensure that the coalition has leeway to legally challenge the election results, should it lose.
“They’re doing this to try to get an election petition to challenge the outcome of the elections. We believe this is what they are trying to do,” Jagdeo said.
He added that linking ID cards to the right to vote is “nonsensical”, since an ID card has “nothing to do with voting”. He noted that persons can vote without an ID card. They can use a passport or take an oath.
The former President postulated that these actions are signs that the APNU is becoming “desperate”, since the rigging of elections will be almost impossible with international observers presiding over the process.
“What we’ve noticed politically, is APNU is getting more desperate… Their level of desperation being matched by their desperate activities. They know it will be difficult to rig activities given international scrutiny. So, they are trying to create the groundwork for legal action after they lose the election,” Jagdeo said.
