The APNU+AFC has indicated that it produced evidence to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to support its claim of electoral fraud but one of the Commissioners on the electoral body has outrightly refuted the claim.
“Yeah,” Executive Member of the APNU, Amna Ally said when asked if her party provided the Commission with certificates of death of individuals it claimed voted in the March 2 General and Regional Elections.
Ally went on to say that in addition to those presented to the Commission, the party is still in possession of a lot more.
“We have quite a lot more [death certificates] in our possession, [but] I can’t give you a count right now [of] how much,” she told reporters Saturday outside the Arthur Chung Conference Center where the recount is taking place.
Within a few hours, however, this claim was rejected by one of the Commissioners of GECOM, Sase Gunraj.
“I sat through a meeting [with the APNU+AFC] that was almost two hours long. It started just after 2pm and it ended just before 4pm and absolutely no evidence was presented at that meeting.
“I’ve been here every day. I walk around every day and nothing as far as I’m aware has been presented. Nothing has been presented to the Commission level, absolutely nothing,” said Gunraj, a nominated GECOM Commissioner of the People’s Progressive Party.
Gunraj said that he only recalls one incident where there was an attempt to tender a “hastily prepared document” as evidence at one of the recount stations.
Since the elections agents at that station didn’t know how to treat the matter, Gunraj said that they attempted to take the matter to a supervisor, but when the coalition learnt of this, it immediately withdrew the document.
Ally also dispelled reports which suggest that the APNU+AFC is using its incumbency status to access records which includes death certificates and immigration records to bolster its claim of dead people and people out of Guyana voting on elections day.
“Anybody can access a death certificate. I think you have to pay $300. So we don’t have to use our power. We have done a lot of work in every nook and cranny of this country. We’re aware of all those who departed these shores and didn’t come back,” Ally said. said.
The Department of Citizenship is headed by Minister Winston Felix – a senior member of the PNC which is the largest party in the APNU+AFC coalition.
Ally said too, that what her party is doing is merely providing evidence which it hopes GECOM will test to determine the credibility of the elections.
“We want the Commission to go and investigate that. We have just cited it. We have evidence that they were not in the country and they voted,” she reiterated.
Prior to her speaking, Roysdale Forde, another APNU+AFC representative sought to pin this accusation of “systemic fraud” on GECOM and its agents.
But Gunraj, in defence of the elections body and its staff described the accusations and allegations as “distasteful.”
