Granger offers no comment to fmr. Minister Gaskin; says no record that Coalition partners conceded defeat at polls
President David Granger on Wednesday set aside comments made by former Minister of Business and his son-in-law Dominic Gaskin, saying he does not wish to comment on what former Ministers are saying.
“No, I don’t have any comments on what a former Minister says. I have comments on what active membership says,” Granger told reporters when asked about comments coming from inside the APNU+AFC which reprimand the coalition for its behaviour and actions amid the ongoing election turmoil.
Gaskin, who is a member of the Alliance For Change (AFC), in two Facebook posts – one after the election in March and another following the national vote recount – said: “there is no reasonable basis on which you [the APNU+AFC] can claim to have won more votes than the PPP-C in these elections.”
He received serious flak from APNU+AFC supporters for his statement although the figures from the recount handed the PPP a victory by over 15,000 votes.
But Gaskin was not the only coalition member to scold the APNU+AFC. Another party in the six-party coalition, the Justice For All Party also called on the Coalition to concede defeat.
Chandranarine Sharma, the leader of the Justice For All Party had conceded the Coalition was defeated and that the PPP is the clear winner.
As such, he said Irfaan Ali who is the Presidential Candidate for the PPP should be allowed to be sworn in without delay.
The President offered a response to this and said: “I have no record of those concerns being expressed. We always explain the process which is being pursued. And the line which our partnership was taking. This is no secret and all six parties are aware of the positions which we have been taking in our approach to the elections commission. We don’t have any hidden agenda within the Coalition and what was said is a matter for the Justice for all Party and you can ask the leadership.”
Despite the calls from inside the coalition, the President has not conceded defeat and continues to insist that there was electoral fraud at the March polls.
The coalition is also claiming victory based on figures put forward by the Chief Elections Officer in which he has set aside the recount figures and invalidated some 115,000 votes to hand the coalition a victory.
The President said he doesn’t know what was the motivation that allowed the Justice For All Party to make those statements.
He rejected them as not being in accord with the matters which were discussed at the coalition level.
Granger’s running mate Khemraj Ramjattan had also conceded in a message to his staff that the Coalition lost the elections to the PPP.
