Opposition leader also met with GECOM Chair at ACCC- Commissioner Alexander
—says opposition in the realm of “unnecessary politicking”
DPI, Guyana, Tuesday, May 19, 2020
Commissioner of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Vincent Alexander has rubbished allegations of a secret meeting between His Excellency President David Granger and GECOM’s Chairperson Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh.
Speaking to the media on Monday, Alexander said the political opposition has gone into a sphere of needless politicking.
“Too often in this country, we get into the realm of politicizing things which are not to be politicized. In my humble opinion, that is in the realm of the unnecessary politicking that this country gets engaged in and acts of absurdity,” he remarked.
The Commissioner noted that this is strange since the opposition leader Bharrat Jagdeo had himself a few days prior met with the GECOM Chairperson when he visited the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC).
“We had all of the politicians visiting this place. A few days ago we had a visit by the General Secretary of the PPP. I am advised that during that visit he was entertained by the Chair. It was not a commission meeting; it was not dissimilar to the meeting with the president. Former President Jagdeo met with the chairperson and others. We commissioners were not called upon to be present,” Alexander told the media.
He said while “Mr. Granger” is the presidential candidate of the APNU+AFC Coalition, “whether we like it or not,” he remains the sitting President of Guyana.
Commissioner Alexander said the president’s visit had nothing to do with an electioneering period.
“We are not electioneering. We are trying to conduct a transparent recount at this time and I don’t think that the presence of President Granger or Mr. Jagdeo would be impacting the process.”
The recount process he stated, is within the workstations where professional officers are doing a good job.
President Granger on Sunday made his first visit to the ACCC since the national recount got underway.
He reported visiting at workstations and brief engagements with the high-level CARICOM team and Justice Singh, all the time accompanied by officials.