Chairman casts deciding vote to set aside declaration of elections results

Justice Claudette Singh, chair of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), cast the deciding vote Thursday afternoon to set aside a report for the declaration of the overall results of the March 02 polls essentially because the report by the Chief Elections Officer contains the tabulation of District Four which has been largely dismissed as being fraudulent.

Given that there was no agreement, the chair and the commissioners will meet again on Friday.

Justice Singh has repeatedly said that she has already given an undertaking to the Chief Justice that because there are questions surrounding the District Four tabulation, GECOM would facilitate a recount.

As expected, the Commissioners – three for the Coalition APNU+AFC and three for the PPP – voted along party lines when a motion was put by Commissioner Vincent Alexander for the report prepared by the Chief Elections Officer on March 14 to be voted on. The Chairman then cast her vote to break the deadlock.

All the Commissioners and the chair had agreed to a national recount supervised by CARICOM.

When the APNU+AFC Candidate Ulita Moore moved to the court to block the recount, the CARICOM team withdrew and CARICOM Chair Mia Mottley expressed the view that there are forces who do not want to see a recount and she warned that any government sworn in on results that are not credible would be deemed illegitimate.

PPP Commissioners have said with the agreement already in place, all that needs to be done is for it to be implemented.