The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is yet to decide how it will deal with the information obtained from the Chief Immigration Officer (CIO) in addressing the claim that persons out of the jurisdiction voted on polling day.
GECOM’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Yolanda Ward told the media today that sometime ago, the APNU+AFC met with GECOM Commissioners and expressed concerns over “irregularities” coming out of the recount exercise.
During that meeting, they were asked to provide evidence to support their claims. The party subsequently provided a letter to the commission, along with a list containing 207 “names” of persons who the APNU+AFC claims were out of the jurisdiction on March 2 but were still listed as voted. The Chairperson of GECOM, Justice (Retired) Claudette Singh then forwarded that attachment to the Commissioner of Police (COP), Leslie James, who is also the State’s CIO, for his attention.
The CIO reported to the Chair that 172 of those persons were not in Guyana on or before March 2, Ward said.
GECOM must now ascertain if those persons voted, and one way of doing so is to check if these names were ticked off on the Official List of Electors (OLE) at each polling station. These lists are in the respective ballot boxes, which were counted, resealed and placed back into the containers being stored aback the recount venue, the Arthur Chung Convention Centre (ACCC).
When asked if there are any plans to reopen those boxes, Ward said that the commission has not decided on the way forward,
“I’m not saying that it is inaccessible [because] it is right behind in a container,” she said.
