My party will not concede defeat – Ramotar

-UK rejects election fraud claims -U.S Embassy insists electoral process free, fair and credible -Canada says no evidence of anomalies that would impact results

By Jarryl Bryan The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has criticized the elections process

Presidential candidate Donald Ramotar, centre, with Zulkifar Mustapha and Ganga Persaud.

and results, alleging that it was cheated of victory by way of collusion between the Opposition and the Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM). Presidential candidate, Donald Ramotar refused to concede defeat and he made this known when the PPP/C’s hastily summoned a press conference at Freedom House yesterday afternoon. The President’s decision is also in stark contrast to what observer teams from the United States, the Commonwealth and Caricom have reported. The envoys of the United States, Britain and Canada, have already declared the elections as credible and free from interference. United States Charge d’Affaires, Bryan Hunt, said that it was in receipt of complaints from the PPP/C. It added that nothing emerged from the ensuing investigation of these allegations that could change the initial assessment of the elections. British High Commissioner Gregory Quinn also attested to receiving the PPP/C complaints, but stated

US charge d’ affaires Bryan Hunt

that his team was unable to find any evidence to support the party’s allegations, nor did the party provide them with any. Canada’s High Commissioner, Dr Nicole Giles, also confirmed that her group had investigated the PPP/C complaints, but found no anomalies with the process that would have a material impact on the election results. All three were part of the Electoral Assistance Bureau, Private Sector Commission observer group, as well as other missions such as CARICOM and the Commonwealth groups, called on the parties to abide by the code of conduct and accept the results. But Ramotar refused to respect the GECOM results, stating that there were instances where known Peoples National Congress/Reform (PNC/R) and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) operatives were observed as polling agents in certain polling stations. “There were a huge number of people, sometimes 100% more, voting on a list although those areas were not blended with the disciplined services votes,” Ramotar said. He declared that this occurred in several areas, which was why the GECOM decision to not announce 490 ballot boxes at Wednesday night’s press conference was significant. He also attested to operatives who were associated with polling stations with high numbers of spoilt ballots in the last elections, were re-employed with GECOM at stations where the pattern repeated itself.

British High Commissioner Greg Quinn

Ramotar called for a recount of every single vote, in an effort to assuage the PPP/C’s mind that the elections were indeed free and fair. According to the incumbent President, a total recount should only take “eight” hours and should it be done, his party was confident of gaining more votes. This is despite GECOM’s declaration that a total recount would make little difference to the final count. When asked if he would be prepared to hand over power after the final declaration, Ramotar declared that he would first have to seek advice from his ‘people’. Meanwhile, PPP/C candidate Ganga Persaud declared that the party had significant evidence of irregularities during the voting process. These the party sent to GECOM but the elections body refused to entertain the concerns. Persaud also denied that GECOM had ever done a recount in Region One. He added that only a limited recount had been done in Region Two. This is in direct contrast to what was announced at the GECOM press conference, yesterday. When asked

Canadian High Commissioner Dr. Nicole Giles

by the media whether they had even watched GECOM’s press conference earlier in the day, both men seemed clueless. “We are not bad losers, nor are we delaying the elections. We are winners, but were cheated out of victory,” Persaud declared.