By Tracey Khan – Drakes

British High Commissioner, James Gregory Quinn. [iNews’ Photo]

The incumbent People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) is alleging that there were hundreds of fake SOPs that were counted which led to the APNU+AFC winning the 2015 elections.

As such, the Party is maintaining that it will not concede defeat in the face of numerous calls by both local and international observers and diplomats for the Party to concede victory to the APNU+AFC coalition.

The British High Commissioner in a statement to iNews noted that “the fact that the Guyana Elections Commission itself found the so-called fake statements of polls and did not include them in the count is encouraging and should be seen in a positive light. This means that GECOM’s systems worked as they were designed to.”

But former President, Bharrat Jagdeo had said that the PPP/C is not giving up just yet, officially adding his voice to the Party’s decision not to concede defeat.

Jagdeo at a press conference on Thursday May 14 provided what he deemed “evidence” that indicates that the elections were rigged in favor of the APNU+AFC coalition.

The undeclared results of the election indicate that the APNU+AFC has managed to acquire 206, 817 votes while the PPP/C has acquired 201,457 votes, which means the coalition won by 5,360 votes.

The results effectively end a 23-year reign by the PPP/C which ascended to office in 1992 under the leadership of the late Dr. Cheddi Jagan.

Several documents were provided by Jagdeo as “evidence”; he explained that they showed “glaring instances” where the figures on the statements of poll in the possession of the PPP/C counting agents do not correlate with the ones in the possession of GECOM.

Chairman of GECOM, Dr. Steve Surujbally said the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) was lauded for finding the anomalies and highlighting them, and therefore he will address and fix them.

He recalled that as the SOPs came in, the Commissioners we were able to pick up that they were fake ones. The SOPs were printed by a Canadian company with a number of security features.

GECOM meanwhile stressed that the fake SOPs were not counted. In addition the media was told that the number of fake SOPs was not of that great quantum so as to disturb the outcome of the election.

Dr Surujbally further questioned what would make a person do such a reprehensible thing, which he stressed will absolutely go nowhere. However, he also accepted that it might go “there where, by those who want to make an issue.”

The Chairman added that given the close race, he can understand the importance being given to the need for checks and balances. And for this he is asking that trust be placed in the CEO to fix the anomalies.