‘CEO’s submission should not come as a surprise to Guyanese’ – Min. Hughes

—evidence of several irregularities unearthed

DPI, Guyana, Monday, June 15, 2020

The detailed report submitted by the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield to the Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM) Chairman should not come as a surprise to Guyanese, as there is adequate evidence of several irregularities unearthed during the recount process.

This was asserted by Minister of Public Telecommunication, the Hon. Catherine Hughes, while appearing on Mark Benschop’s ‘Straight Up’ on Sunday evening.

“Fundamentally, the process has shown the lack of the integrity that is absolutely required with an election of this importance or any election,” Minister Hughes noted.

The CEO’s report submitted Saturday last has indicated that the March 2 General and Regional Elections lacked impartiality and fairness.

Notably, these finding of irregularities ranges from missing certificates of employment and oaths of identity that are required by electors voting without ID cards. Instances of electors voting with oaths of identity but were not listed on the OLE and cases where some ballot boxes were found with extra ballots or without the requisite documentation.

“In terms of what the numbers are showing, we had close to 1,375 missing oaths of identity and these missing oaths were discovered in all ten regions and yet they are 333 people that actually voted without that document,” the Public Telecommunication Minister said.

Additionally, it was disclosed that thousands of dead persons voted and there were instances where persons out of the jurisdiction voted.

Minister Hughes said these unlawful issues emerging from the recount exercise substantiate the claims electoral fraud made by the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) coalition.

Among other cases detected, the Public Telecommunication Minister reminded of the over 8000 instances of fraud affecting 1,222 of the 2,339 total ballot boxes.

“On the East Coast, there were allegedly close to 10,000 votes associated with those 47 boxes that were contaminated. We have to remember that the PPP was very strident with recounting ballots only in Region Four and when we started opening boxes in Region One, that is when you really began to understand the scale of this fraud,” she stated.

Minister Hughes underscored the importance of Guyanese need to know the truth of the ongoing recount process.