Rohee’s antics suggest PPP is fearful of upcoming elections

-  Preparing the wicket to cry foul – APNU

By Abena Rockcliffe

Shadow Minister of Education, Amna Ali

A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) is convinced that the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) is running scared in the face of the looming General Elections and is, as a result, clutching at straws.

This was APNU’s position yesterday at its weekly press conference held at the Office of the Leader of the Opposition, Hadfield Street, Georgetown.

Leader of the coalition, David Granger was not present but Shadow Minister of Education, Amna Ali, Shadow Minister of Home Affairs, Winston Felix, and Shadow Minister of Local Government, Ronald Bulkan, held the fort.

APNU’s view, as expressed by representatives, is that even though the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE) is not “perfect”, the PPP is making unnecessary noise.

At his weekly press conference held at Freedom House on Monday, PPP General Secretary Clement Rohee disclosed that Party members, “have found, thus far, approximately 2,958 dead persons on the PLE.”

But after being asked several follow up questions pertaining to this, Rohee told reporters, “look, I am the General Secretary of this party, I would not sit here and give you information that is not credible.”

According to Rohee, checks on the PLE for Regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine accumulatively accounted for 450 of the overall sum of dead voters. He added that Region Three’s list had 232 “dead persons” and 345 were discovered on the Region Two list.

Further, Rohee noted that 430 names of persons who no longer exist were on the list for Region Five while the list for Region Six has the highest number of dead people; 925. Regions Four and 10, separately, had the same number of dead voters; 288 each.

When asked what evidence the PPP has to confirm the deaths, Rohee noted that Guyana is a small country and “everybody knows everybody.”

He then said that Party members on the ground got their information from neighbours and relatives when they enquired about persons who they could not locate.

APNU’s Ali told the media yesterday that during the entire Claims and Objections period, Rohee has been lamenting the process and making unfounded claims. She said that one of the spurious claims is that the PLE is padded and Rohee, as such, has called for a “transparent” list.

In response to such claims, Ali said, “APNU holds no brief for GECOM (Guyana Elections Commission) but surely Mr. Rohee is inventing issues to support his allegations.”

The long-time politician said that it must be noted that all aspects of the registration exercise are done in keeping with the law and rules. She exemplified, in the case of the 2,958 deceased persons Rohee said his party members found on the list, that all reported deaths to GECOM are duly deleted from the list.

With that Ali asked, “Can Mr. Rohee say whether, as the Minister in charge of the General Registrar’s Office (GRO) that that list is updated and has been submitted to GECOM.”

She said that it is unfortunate also that Rohee’s allegation of a padded list with dead persons is inaccurate as “it illustrates the inefficiency of the PPP’s General Secretary and his field staff whom he claims submitted the field information.”

Shadow Minister of Home Affairs, Winston Felix

According to the Member of Parliament (MP), a cursory look at a few Regions gives a revealing example of this issue. “Region No. 3 – Plantain Walk Office 225 objections were submitted. Worthy of note is that out of that amount, 212 alone are from Den Amstel but, more than that, many of those are people who are alive and well and certainly existing. This repeats itself in all other regions. In Region No. 5 – Mr. Rohee reported that 454 persons are on the list that should not be there. His Party’s submission to GECOM for objections is 367 with a focus to take off residents of Hopetown from the list. Many of these persons are prominent people – teachers, clerks, mechanics, etc.”

Ali said that such signs resulted in the APNU’s belief that Rohee and the PPP are fearful of facing the upcoming polls.

She said therefore, that Rohee decided to blame GECOM, employ delaying tactics for the holding of elections to prepare the “wicket to cry ‘foul’ when they lose the elections.”

“I want to be very clear that APNU wants a clean and transparent list of electors. We do not subscribe to the disenfranchisement of any elector regardless of his or her ethnicity. Let it be known also that APNU too has its field staff which is doing their fieldwork. We urge GECOM to do its best and produce a transparent list of electors so that all concerned can be happy,” said Ali.

Shadow Minister of Home Affairs, Winston Felix, told the media that the trend of PPP enquiries suggests that the Party is targeting those who they label “APNU supporters.”

He said that the PPP is finding problems only in the areas predominately populated with APNU supporters.

Felix made reference to one of PPP’s concerns which is that 10 persons were registered at one House. He said that he can attest that the area where he grew up has at least two addresses where that amount of persons indeed reside.

Felix pointed out however, that Rohee said nothing about the 233 persons living at one Cotton Tree address.

The MP said that Rohee’s antics characterized by his frivolous complaints suggest that the PPP is shivering in its metaphorical shoes.

He pointed out that the GRO is being poorly managed by Rohee and that “the GRO needs computerizing but Rohee lacks the vision.”

The APNU is presently focusing on registration and keeping citizens up to date. As part of these efforts the coalition will be having a walk -about this weekend.