PPP/C says many SOPs are fake

– GECOM’s Preliminary figures show APNU+AFC wins by 5,360 votes

The People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) in a memorandum to the diplomatic community is contending that irregularities plagued the May 11th 2015 Guyana General and Regional Elections including specifically the voting at Polling Stations and the processing of the voting by GECOM electoral staff and others.

In support of its contention, the PPP/C disclosed that many Statements of Polls (SOPs) received by GECOM from the ten Electoral Districts were identified as fakes.

The Party in a statement noted that at its meeting on Wednesday, Chief Elections Officer of GECOM, Mr. Keith Lowenfield, disclosed that he had noticed that many of the SOPs had formats different from the authentic SOPs that were earlier distributed to the Electoral Districts to be used by Presiding Officers to tabulate votes at Polling Stations.

“These fake SOPs did not additionally carry the endorsed signatures of GECOM that were applied to every SOP purchased by GECOM from Canada,” the PPP noted.

According to the PPP, it was also disclosed that SOPs had numbers of voters that exceeded the voters that were assigned to the Polling Stations.

As a result of this, the PPP/C had called on GECOM to halt declaration until the following is completed:

1.     a) The establishment of the genuine nature of each SOP submitted to GECOM for the ten (10) Electoral Districts and provision of a quantitative assessment of fake SOPs;

2.     b) The total recount of all ballots cast in the May 11th, 2015 Elections;

3.     c) The earliest disclosure of these irregularities, the nature and the results of the investigation done by GECOM;

4.     d) The submission of interventions to regain confidence in the Electoral process of May 11th, 2015.

Meanwhile, with all results in, based on GECOM’s Preliminary Results, the APNU+AFC alliance has won the most votes for the 2015 General and Regional Elections. Mr Lowenfield made the announcement on Thursday at a press conference.

With results from all polling stations in, the APNU+AFC alliance has received 206, 817 votes while the PPP/C received 201, 457 votes for the 2015 the General Elections. He said that the results are preliminary and the Returning Officers will be making their official declarations soon.

The PPP/C has requested recounts from all the districts. However, the US, UK and Canada, as well as other observer missions have hailed the polls. UK High Commissioner, Greg Quinn said that there is no evidence to support new allegations made by the PPP/C of irregularities in Monday’s elections. Quinn’s statement follows another by the US Embassy standing by its assessment that Monday’s elections were free and fair.

The result shows how close the election was as the margin is less than a seat.