GECOM cautions against claims of the dead and those overseas voting on March 2

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has now directed that staff conducting the national vote recount be careful with the language they use when claims are made that some persons who were dead, along with some who had migrated and were not in Guyana, as having being crossed off on the list of electors as having voted.

Those claims are being made by APNU+AFC and the other parties are objecting, accusing APNU+AFC of delaying the recount process by bringing up allegations which they have no evidence for.

Any anomalies or questions parties have are placed on an Observation Report after each box is counted.

The Commission Sunday directed GECOM staff to ensure they use careful language in recording those questions, such as “alleged” when parties make claims of the dead or the migrated having voted, Yolanda Ward, GECOM’s Public Relations Officer reported.

All parties had the opportunity to raise objections so the names of deceased persons would be struck off the national register of voters. But for the name to be struck off, the person making the objection would have had to produce a death certificate to make a claim.

In addition, the High Court had ruled that being resident in Guyana was not a requirement for persons to vote once their name is on the Voters’ List. Several Guyanese who live overseas are known to have returned to Guyana to vote in the March 02 elections.

In addition, agents of the parties contesting the elections, as well as GECOM staff, would have had the information of all voters to check off on elections day.

And so, Leader of the Citizenship Initiative, Rhonda-Ann Lam, has called the claims “strange.”

She said if there is credible evidence of dead people or of persons who were not present in Guyana voting, then that is electoral fraud, but she said that would mean GECOM staff colluded with unknown people to present themselves to the poll booth.

It would mean, she reasoned, that they then voted and this was able to be done under the watchful eyes of party reps and other scrutineers.

“It has broad reaching implications of the original count being fraudulent.

“However it seems the incumbent was quite happy to be sworn in on even now less emerging credible figures,” Lam stated on her Facebook page.