International observers made premature declarations on the May 11 general elections prior to the Statements of Polls (SoPs) being verified by the returning officers with polling agents, former president Bharrat Jagdeo stated yesterday.

Jagdeo, who played a very active role in the PPP’s campaign, was speaking at a press briefing at Freedom House,

where he also dismissed rumours that the party was collapsing. Instead, he said members were in fact uniting to restore democracy to Guyana and the PPP to office.

According to Gecom’s official count for the general elections, APNU+AFC received 207, 200 votes to the PPP/C’s 202,694 votes to win both the presidency and a one-seat majority in the National Assembly.

However, the PPP, which had been in power for 23 years, has since charged that the electoral process was manipulated despite statements from local and international observers endorsing the process as free, fair and credible.

Jagdeo yesterday stated that the international observers made a hasty announcement that the election was free and fair before the ballots were counted. “We believe that elections does not end if you have a good day of voting; it ends only when the results are declared and the integrity of the entire process and what ends up as the final numbers are verified,” he said.

The former president declared that the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) was the “source” of the problem and that there was some sort of “sinister” motive behind the refusal to grant the party’s request for a recount and the releasing of “box by box” SoPs.

“I believe that there is a fear because when we have our statements of polls, which we have, and we take those there would be differences,” he said, adding that even now the PPP believes there are attempts within Gecom to manipulate the SoPs.

The PPP is therefore going to file an elections petition shortly and it will outline all of the issues raised at the press conference. He added that the party was also prepared to mobilise its supporters and tell them that it was cheated out of office.

Jagdeo said a great amount of rigging took place in Gecom itself with its machinery. He cited several “manipulations” of the election process, which included “…recycling of votes, the impersonation of people, the stuffing of the ballot box… creating a hostile environment, chasing out polling agents.”

Jagdeo also stated that the party intends to expose every case of victimisation, which “has already started” under the new administration.

“There is a case of racial and political discrimination… The new administration is beginning to rear its ugly head once again. We think this government is going to be extremely corrupt,”

former president Donald Ramotar added.

He stated that party members are yet to decide what their “attitude” toward the new government would be “because it has been formed on the basis of a rigged elections. It is illegal.

It does not represent the will of the people of our country.”

He said they are also still debating their roles in Parliament. “We think that we have some time in dealing with this issue because, so far, Gecom has not yet given us what we have requested of Gecom.

The whole question of the box by box count, which we requested, has not been given,” Ramotar stated.

He expressed frustration with the delay of the box by box recount, while suggesting that it might be a tactic to further manipulate the results.

Nevertheless, he said, the party will continue to struggle for Guyanese voices to be heard and take the issue to an international level so that “governments around the world and international organisations will know that the new government of Guyana is not a government that reflects the will of Guyanese, that it is an undemocratic government formed by rigged elections.”

Ramotar indicated they have so far identified 30 regional and international organisations with which to raise the issue.

On Thursday, Ramotar and several of his former ministers protested in front of the headquarters of Gecom, calling for its chairman Dr Steve Surujbally to resign.