GECOM awaiting parties before gazetting election results

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is yet to publish the results of Elections 2015 in the Official Gazette despite having declared the final results of these elections last Saturday.

From all indications the results will not be ‘Gazetted’ before another week, or more, has passed.

This does not sit well with the now-opposition Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) which is desirous of obtaining copies of the Statements of Polls (SOPs) as well as the tally sheets used by GECOM to arrive at final result it declared last Saturday.

However, GECOM Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, says it is the fault of the political parties that the information is yet to be published. He explained that the law requires the PPP/C and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) + Alliance for Change (AFC) to submit certain information before the results of Elections 2015 is gazetted.

The relevant legislation in this regard is Section 99 (a) – (d) of the Representation of the People Act.

The provision reads: “As soon as possible, but not later than fifteen days after election days the Commission shall publicly declare the results of the election and shall cause to be published in the Gazette a notification thereof, specifying…the number of votes cast for each list of candidates; the number of rejected ballot papers; the number of seats allocated to each list of candidates; and the names of persons who, as a result of the election, have become members of the National Assembly.”

According to Lowenfield, the final criteria can only be satisfied once the political parties which won seats in the National Assembly furnish him with the names of the persons who will serve as their MPs.

The APNU + AFC coalition won 33 of the National Assembly’s 65 seats while the PPP/C Party won 32. Of the 33 seats which went to the coalition the 12 will go to the AFC, as per the Cummingsburg Accord – the agreement which established the coalition.

On Wednesday, Alliance for Change (AFC) General Secretary, David Patterson, said the AFC is still deliberating on who will fill its seats. He said though, that the process should be completed in less than 14 days.

Five days after Elections Day GECOM declared that the coalition won 207, 200 votes, while the PPP/C won 202, 669. These results gave the coalition 33 seats and the PPP/C 32. The PPP/C has argued that several anomalies bring into question the integrity of Elections 2015 and have vowed to take the matter to court.