Weight issue prevented political party agents from Reg. 7 flight to observe Joint Services voting

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has clarified that political agents of the People’s Progressive Party, the APNU+AFC Coalition and the United Republican Party (URP) did not get on the flight to Region # 7 to observe Discipline Services Balloting on Friday because the weight was above the 600lbs payload.

A statement from GECOM Saturday debunked reports in some sections of the media which implied that the PPP Agent was the only one who did not get on the flight at the Eugene F. Correia International Airport at Ogle.

The passengers who were scheduled to be on the flight included the GECOM Balloting Officers, Commissioner Vincent Alexander, a Police Officer and three Agents from APNU/AFC, PPP/C and URP.

“The Pilot advised that two persons would not be able go on the flight. As such, it was decided that rather than taking one Agent and leaving two, No Agent would go on the flight.

“This is a regrettable situation. However, in the interest of ensuring safety and that the statutory activity of Discipline Services Balloting proceeded as planned, the best decision was taking in this regard,” GECOM said.

Presidential Candidate of the PPP Irfaan Ali had told the media Friday that the PPP agent was “ejected from the flight” and that the Executive of the Party had written to GECOM expressing their concern.

“She [PPP agent] was told there was no space… we have a situation where the polling was taking place without our agent being there after being ejected from the flight,” Ali said.

GECOM assured that the process was observed by international observers on the ground “which lends itself to a level of transparency.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: GECOM  inadvertently stated that it was Region 8 but later clarified that it was Region 7. This article has since been amended to reflect accuracy.