Coalition says Mingo’s figures match its SOPs; wants winner announced on previous declaration
Party Agent for the APNU+AFC coalition David Patterson on Thursday said figures tabulated and declared by Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo “mostly” correspond with Statements of Poll (SOPs) in the Coalition’s possession.
While noting the APNU+AFC’s unwillingness to release its SOPs for a transparent comparative analysis, Patterson says the Coalition still wants the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to declare a winner based on all previous declarations made.
GECOM is currently undergoing a recount exercise but Patterson says the Coalition’s position remains that the previous declarations in its possession should be used to declare a winner.
What is the purpose of the recount then? He told reporters that GECOM will have to decide what it intends to do with the declarations from the recount.
Patterson said while the Coalition will not release its SOPs, it intends to produce its own tabulation at the completion of each district in the recount exercise.
He believes releasing the Coalition’s SOPs will disturb the process with undue distraction.
But then he said: “The Satement of Recount matter now, we want a winner to be determined. This exercise is not a question of comparison, it is about determining a winner and a next government,” he said.
At the end of Day Eight of the exercise, 25 boxes for the contentious District Four were counted and it shows Mingo’s declaration of APNU+AFC inflated by 1,874 votes and that for the PPP/C reduced by 262 votes .
Patterson said coming out from the recount there are a number of anomalies that put a large number of votes for the Coalition in jeopardy.
Notwithstanding these stated anomalies, Patterson was insistent that the previous declarations should be used to declare a winner and all anomalies be addressed in an elections petition.
“We did address our mind to those anomalies; we always said that the list was bloated and that also makes room for malfeasance and electoral issues and challenges,” he added.
The APNU+AFC have repeatedly claimed that there are several instances where persons who are listed as dead or migrated was crossed out to have voted in the March 02, 2020 elections.
