GECOM dismisses APNU/AFC attempts to remove 13,000 voters in Region 5

Unsubstantiated objections

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on Saturday rejected the objections to over 535 names being on the voters’ list in west Region Five from Abary to Big Baiabu, Mahaica. This reject brings the total number to 13,000 objections that GECOM has dismissed after the unsubstantiated objections were made in Region Five. Following the public hearing, several persons called for the person/persons who objected to them being on the voters’ list to be charged since no one from the APNU/AFC Government who objected turned up at Mahaicony, where the hearing was conducted.

Only two days prior, objections to 463 names from Moraikobai were rejected by GECOM after the persons turned up at a public hearing to prove that they are alive and resided at the addresses that GECOM had for them.
The list of eligible voters at Moraikobai has 510 names and of that number, 463 were objected to by persons associated with the current administration. The situation was no different at the GECOM Sub-Regional Office at Mahaicony on Saturday morning when returning Officer Laikharam Pancham, in his capacity of Magistrate Designate, threw out the objections.

Deputy Chief Scrutineer for the People’s Progressive Party Fizal Jaffarally, addressing the Court, asked for the Magistrate Designate to provide those who had turned up for the hearing with information which he considered vital.
“You have been saying that the objector made the objections, do you care to tell us the name of the objector?” Jaffarally asked.
“Ms Carol Smith Joseph,” Pancham said while noting that Joseph made the objections in her capacity as Deputy Chief Scrutineer for Region Five A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC).
Jaffarally said that it was an act of mischief since Carol Joseph failed to show up at the hearing. He said many of the persons who were being objected were prominent members of the community and even some who GECOM recently trained.
Jaffarally said GECOM should not allow, what he referred to as a criminal offence, to go unpunished.
“Based on the Laws of Guyana, I am humbly requesting that, as the Registration Officer for this district, because of the misleading evidence produced to GECOM that these objectees are perhaps dead, insane, imprisoned or not existing, based on the law, that the Police be informed and an investigation be launched”.
He added that what happened was an abuse of the system for Claims and Objections.
“The purpose for the Claims and Objections exercise is not to disenfranchise any Guyanese”.
The Party’s Deputy Chief Scrutineer told the court that thousands of prominent Guyanese who were objected to, have lived all their lives at one address, some of them businesspersons.
Among those prominent persons, Jaffarally pointed out were rice farmers and cricket commentator Inderjeet Persaud, who has lived all his life at Mahaicony. He said the situation placed heavy stress on thousands of persons in Region Five.
“What is appalling is that this objector is unable to face the objectees. She thought that nobody would turn up here. So, based on the law, I am requesting that you, as the presiding Magistrate, inform the Police urgently and be brought in to have an investigation done and if it leads to prosecution, so be it”. Pancham said he did not have the authority to call in the Police but will be passing the information to GECOM for it to decide what course of action it will take.
Meanwhile, in the other Sub-Division between Abary and Ithaca, there were objections to the names of 9900 persons. Those have also been dismissed by GECOM.
Meanwhile, in Region Six, close to 200 names on the voters’ list were objected to but the objections were recalled.
This publication understands that the instructions to make the objections came from senior APNU officials.

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