Since that infamous night in December 2018, the Guyanese people were told issues must be decided in accordance with the Constitution and the laws of Guyana. On December 21, 2018, Charandass Persaud sat in Parliament, and used the vote given to him by APNU-AFC supporters to bring down the APNU-AFC government. It was immoral, it was repugnant, and it was corrupt. However, three courts, including the Caribbean Court of Justice, told us that issues of morality, decency, and fairness did not matter. What mattered was the Constitution and the Laws of Guyana.
The APNU-AFC established that the voters list was bloated by a minimum of 33%, or in excess of 200,000 names. The APNU-AFC argued that a list with this level of defects could not deliver credible elections.
As per the ACE Knowledge Network, “The Electoral Roll should thus be at least 85% accurate with the endorsement of key stakeholders (Political parties and Local domestic observation groups) having confidence in it.” ACE posited that “the credibility of an election comes under threat “as the margin of victory approaches the margin of error.” In other words, the closer an election is anticipated to be, the greater the need for accuracy of the voters’ roll. APNU-AFC argued that, in keeping with international standards, a clean list is needed to ensure credible elections. GECOM agreed, and attempted to clean the list. The PPP went to court, and the court ruled in their favor. In other words, the court ruled, forget international standards, forget integrity of the elections, forget a fair elections, according to the the Constitution and the Laws of Guyana, GECOM cannot clean the list.
APNU-AFC supporters were asked to bite their lips and comply. ABC countries, and other stakeholders called upon the government to comply, no matter how distasteful the rulings were. The government complied, and called elections on March 2 with a voters list that had over 200,000 dead, nonexistent or missing persons.
The APNU-AFC was forced to divert millions of dollars into a countrywide fraudulent voting detection and prevention effort. In Region 3, multiple teams were dispatched on the West Coast and West Bank, and into the Essequibo River. The instructions were to report all suspicious activities, and weaknesses in GECOM processes. The command center in Vreed-en-Hoop was inundated with calls from the Supernumerary Agents who were leading each team. The issues reported included;
- Several ballot boxes were opened before the designated time, and before the APNU-AFC agent arrived.
- Vast majority of persons were voting without ID Cards, and the ID verification process, as set out by GECOM, was not being followed.
- The PPP was shuttling persons from polling station to polling station as part of a massive multiple voting exercise.
- In cases where ID Cards where presented, the party agent could not verify the identity of the person, because they were not allowed to examine the ID Card. The folio was of little or no use, because the only time the Agents got a good frontal view of the electors was when they were existing the polling booth, and in a manner of seconds the ballot was in the ballot box.
- Some Presiding Officers, despite the objection of Party Agents, were calling electors demanding that they come out to vote. This is a role for party campaign workers, not a supposedly impartial GECOM staff.
- Some Presiding Officers, against the objection of the Party Agent, were directing electors how to vote. The direction was, “put the X next to the Cup.”
- Several APNU-AFC Polling Agents were thrown out of the polling station during the count based on a technicality. Some Presiding Officers claimed that the Agents’ letter of appointment stated “polling agent,” instead of, “polling and counting agent.” As a result several ballot boxes were counted without a representative of APNU-AFC present.
Several of these issues were raised with the Returning Officer, Mr Jagdeo. On the issue of the Polling Agent being unable to properly verify the identity of the voter, Mr Jagdeo said APNU-AFC have to live with that because transparency will slow the process. He did not act on any of the complaints. He even rejected APNU-AFC request for a recount.
It is estimated that there was fraudulent voting at a rate of at least 3 per hour at a minimum of 300 polling stations. The Region had 566 polling stations. It is estimated that over 10,000 fraudulent votes were cast for the PPP in Region 3 alone.
Over 10,000 fraudulent votes were cast in Region 3, because the courts ruled it is the constitution, not the integrity of the elections, that is important. Over 10,000 fraudulent votes were cast in Region 3, because the courts stopped GECOM from cleaning the list. According to the courts, they were only interested in the letter of the law.
Now we are in court again. The PPP is asking the court to prevent GECOM from declaring the results of Region 4, until the PPP agrees. The PPP wants the right to scrutinize the Region 4 results despite the fact other Regions were not scrutinized in a similar manner. On this occasion the PPP is asking the court to ignore the law, and consider what the PPP deems right and wrong. They are asking the same court that allowed a list bloated with 200,000 names, because of the letter of the law, to ignore the law. The same court whose ruling resulted in 10,000 fraudulent votes in Region 3 is being asked to ignore the law, and allow the PPP to scrutinize and make objections, polling station by point station, in an effort to whittle away the APNU-AFC lead.
Let’s wait and see what the court will do.