“Intl’ community should know the difference between vote cast and a valid vote” – Aubrey Norton
– “No govt should come to power by fraudulent means
DPI, Guyana, Saturday, June 27, 2020
“The international community should know the difference between a vote cast and a valid vote.” This view was posited by APNU Executive Aubrey Norton while appearing on Benschop Radio 107.1FM on Friday.
Norton was at the time responding to a question on the international community’s involvement in recent Guyana’s elections.
He noted that while votes are cast in an election, they must have all the legal statutory documents to be deemed valid.
During the tabulation phases of the 4-stage recount process of votes cast at the March 2, General and Regional Elections, hundreds of irregularities were discovered.
These irregularities were highlighted in the reports submitted by the Chief Elections Officer and the CARICOM scrutinising team.
“Therefore, when the international community tells us that you must declare on votes tabulated, they are attempting to suggest that we make a declaration based on votes tabulated from the ballot boxes but not what is legally in the boxes,” Norton stated.
The election process was halted after the PPP filed an appeal in the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) requesting that it set aside all decisions made by Guyana’s Court of Appeal on Monday, June 22.
On Monday last, the appellate court in a majority first ruled that it had jurisdiction to hear the case Eslyn David vs the Guyana Elections Commission and second that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is to interpret the words “more valid votes cast” to mean “more valid votes cast,” when determining the results for the March 2 Elections.
Norton pointed out that “Guyanese are aware of what is happening and as Anil Nandlall said, ‘fraud is fraud’.”
He stressed that it is the task of the APNU+AFC to promote the interest of Guyana and to let the international community know that “we are not disposed to allow anybody to come to power by fraudulent means.”