People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Executive, Sherwayne Holder said on Thursday that recent claims by Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Justice (retired) Claudette Singh about no evidence being submitted about forged signatures on lists submitted on Nomination Day were erroneous. His party however could not confirm or deny whether a formal complaint was made to GECOM about its findings.
Justice Singh yesterday on the sidelines of an event at State House responded to questions from the media about the opposition’s claim of fraud committed by representatives of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP). According to Justice Singh, she has not received any evidence to substantiate these claims.
She said, “They have not brought their evidence. When they bring the evidence to us, we’ll take it from there. But I have not seen anything. They’re making allegations, allegations are not evidence. I used to be a criminal judge, and I know the evidence. I was a Police Legal Adviser.”
When asked by Guyana Standard today whether an official correspondence was sent to the commission from the party, Holder evaded the question. He instead posited that there have been complaints filed with GECOM from various Returning Officers, including persons who have come out to request their names be removed from the PPP’s list.
“Justice Singh cannot say that she is not aware of these complaints… There are several persons who denied signing their names on those lists and as such made requests to have them removed. She has made herself an enemy of fair play and democracy and therefore she is unfit to be Chairperson of GECOM,” Holder said.
Meanwhile, Opposition Parliamentarian Amanza Walton-Desir in response to the same question said that GECOM was made aware of the alleged electoral fraud through the opposition’s elected members who sit on the commission. She noted too that those individuals have raised the issue at the level of the commission.
Just days after Nominations Day last week, copies of various nomination lists made its way to social media suggesting that there was fraud committed. GECOM was urged to investigate these claims but yesterday stated that no evidence were presented on the matter, hence nothing could be done at this moment.
