Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Dr Steve Surujbally. [iNews’ Photo]

[www.inewsguyana.com] – The main opposition – People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) is calling for the immediate resignation of Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Dr Steve Surujbally.

The Party in a press statement on Monday evening (May 18) expressed that it no longer has confidence in Dr Surujbally, who has been Chairman of the elections Body for approximately 10 years.

The PPP/C was unseated from 23 years of government by the APNU+AFC coalition at the just concluded 2015 general and regional elections but did not accept defeat, citing a flawed electoral process.

Its request for a recount was denied by GECOM. According to the PPP statement, prior to the elections, the Party raised concerns both publicly and privately with the GECOM Chairman, Commission and Secretariat, the advance assessment teams of the UN, Commonwealth and the Carter Centre, the diplomatic community, and subsequently with the International Observer Missions with regard to the partiality of the GECOM machinery.

“The recruitment of polling staff connected to the APNU+AFC coalition was known and the PPPC consistently raised its concerns publicly months before during the recruitment and training periods,” the statement detailed.

It was further noted that fears were also expressed about the removal of the foreign IT Specialist at a critical time just two weeks before the elections and the denial of requests for public disclosures of GECOM Elections Day staff.

“This lack of transparency and willingness to enhance public trust and confidence by GECOM in the face of blatant infiltration of the machinery by known APNU+AFC activists is an indictment.

“Our public positions were supported with conclusive evidence that a number of irregularities were carried out on elections day and the period immediately thereafter particularly multiple voting, creation of fraudulent and fictitious SOP’s etc, to such an extent that any government formed on the basis of declared results (without a recount ) would not reflect the will of the people of Guyana.”

According to the PPP/C, these events have contributed to the loss of confidence in the GECOM machinery and more particularly its Chairman, Dr. Surujbally.

“The PPP/C calls for the immediate resignation of Dr. Surujbally as Chairman.”

According to the statement, the PPP/C has collected and will continue to collect further evidence to file an elections petition.