URP President Vishnu Bandhu

– says Elections will not be fair

The United Republican Party (URP) has taken a decision not to participate in the upcoming Local Government Elections (LGE), since it said nothing has changed since the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) refused to honour its requests in the May 11 General Elections, raising its fears that the process would not be fair.

The lightweight political party had recently accused the Commission of cheating the electoral process in May, stating that there were fake Statements of Polls and the stuffing of ballot boxes. The group noted also that several voters had sworn they had voted for URP, yet results showed that the group received none of the votes.

“Last May, prior to the General Elections, we made a list of requests to GECOM that promised to honour them. But the election body broke its commitment, failing to deliver on most of the simple requests, including to grant accreditation to our polling agents to be present at the polling stations to guarantee a free and fair election.  What followed was a very controversial election that cannot be deemed to be free and fair and/or accurate representation of the will of the people,” URP stated in a recent release.

Following the Elections, the Party had requested to view the SoPs, but was denied.

URP President Vishnu Bandhu on Friday alleged that his Party was asked to bear witness to the opening of ballot boxes at a particular time in Vreed-en-Hoop, West Bank Demerara, a few days after the Elections, but when his agents showed up at the GECOM sub-station where ballot boxes were stored, they were informed that the boxes had already been opened, so they left. Incredulously, the URP President noted that a day later, a statement (on GECOM’s letterhead) was presented to his party agents to sign that they witnessed the opening of the ballot boxes.

“We refused to sign! That is evidence of something amiss about the conduct of the election and no investigation till this date was undertaken,” he stated.

Bandhu further stated that URP did not wish to be party to fraud, noting that if the Elections Commission could not honour its simple requests in the General Elections, “what confidence is there that this local election will be free and fair? Nothing has changed since May to bolster confidence in GECOM presiding over a clean election. Thus, URP will not contest the election as a party.”

However, the Party encouraged independent candidates and community groups to contest the elections, adding that it would support candidates who it believed genuinely had at heart the interests of their communities.

The Party also called on the three parties represented in Parliament to pass legislation to empower the local communities to control their own destinies – running their own local affairs including the power to tax, legislate, establish policing units, schooling, and develop their neighbourhoods.