Close to 90,000 votes affected due to electoral fraud- Harmon
DPI, Guyana, Friday, June 5, 2020
Nearly ninety thousand (90,000) votes have been affected due to electoral fraud, says former Director-General of the Ministry of the Presidency and Election Agent for the APNU+AFC Joseph Harmon.
He was at the time addressing the media outside of the Arthur Chung Conference Centre where the recount of votes cast on March 2 is undergoing.
Harmon explained that he has “made it clear” to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) that they must provide answers to the people of Guyana.
“Yesterday I asked the elections commission to respond to concerns which were raised by us and that affects all of Guyana concerning these people who are overseas and voting, the dead voters, the discipline services votes which they have not told us anything about,” he said.
Harmon disclosed that he has requested an answer from the elections body by the end of the day since “this phase of the exercise will come to an end very shortly” and a clear position from the commission on that particular issue must be had.
It was pointed out that the Opposition PPP has described his demands as threats.
Harmon noted “I will continue to fight for the right and for the justice of the Guyanese people to ensure that their votes are properly counted, that they are properly validated and that whatever comes out of this process represents the will of the Guyanese people expressed on March 2, 2020.” he said.
He said GECOM is obligated to respond to the matters despite the tactics being used by the opposition to prevent the commission from deliberating on that matter.
The issues at hand were extracted from GECOM’s record and the APNU+AFC Election Agent is optimistic that the Commission will understand the seriousness as the issues are proving to be more than just allegations.
Harmon drew attention to blatant electoral fraud on the lower east coast where in PPP strongholds, the presiding officers neglected the training they received from GECOM since ballot boxes were found to contain just the ballots and none of the other documentation.
“These are major issues that concern the credibility of this process and I want to make this very clear that what is taking place at the tabulation centre is a tabulation of those votes. So, when it is announced as valid, we have an objection to that because a valid vote is a vote which has been tabulated and which has gone through a process of assessment taking into consideration the observation and objections which has been made,” Harmon emphasised.
He further stressed “that is a very obnoxious position that anyone can take to say that these are valid votes. I am happy to see this morning our team brought to our attention several other boxes with the same issue. So, it is going to be a challenge in my view for the commission to come to a definitive position where these votes are concerned.”
In a statement on Thursday, Harmon noted that the coalition will not sit idly by while cases of irregularities continue to soar. He said the onus is now on GECOM to swiftly investigate.