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On Nomination Day for the 2023 Local Government Elections (LGE), the contesting parties submitted their lists of candidates for the various Local Authorities Areas across the country.
Since then, most Guyanese have learnt from the evidence we have shown that the submissions of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) contain numerous instances of forgery, fakery, impersonation and blatant electoral fraudulent acts, said the Opposition.
The A Partnership of National Unity and Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) in recent statement made known “these blatant acts of fraud by the PPP amount to an orchestrated attempt to rig the 2023 LGE. They expose the PPP’s desperation and waning popularity among the Guyanese people. Worse, they are high criminal acts that must be punished by the full force of the law.”
The Opposition said from the documented evidence revealed to the public, “the PPP’s fraudulent acts include (i) fake signatures, where one PPP agent signs for every nominator, (ii) selecting nominators without their knowledge and consent and forging their signatures, (iii) signing on behalf of nominators who are either dead or overseas, (iv) signing on behalf of persons who normally use their thumb print, (v) intimidating nominators to remove their names from the APNU lists, (vi) coercing and threatening persons to support the PPP or otherwise lose their jobs and hand-outs, and (vii) compelling ten-day workers to participate in PPP political activities.”
Many of the affected persons have written to, or have directly approached, GECOM regional offices and the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to lodge complaints, said the Opposition, pointing out the APNU wrote the Commissioner of Police requesting a meeting to present the evidence and to demand the police act against the fraudsters and their controllers at Freedom House.
The APNU said GECOM suggesting the agency cannot investigate the illegalities that the PPP is involved in goes contrary to its responsibility for ensuring free and fair elections which lies squarely at the feet of GECOM.
“It is therefore a dereliction of duty on GECOM’s part if it fails to engage the Guyana Police Force to take legal action against the perpetrators of electoral fraud. By GECOM’s action the credibility of LGE 2023 is in question and should not proceed until an investigation is done into the irregularities involving the PPP and its activists.”
It must be noted here that Justice Claudette Singh has removed all pretensions of being independent and interested in free and fair elections. It should be evident to all that she is a pawn of the People’s Progressive Party and can never deliver free, fair and credible elections.
Turning attention to GECOM Chairperson Justice Claudette Singh SC, the Opposition said she has made herself an enemy of fair play and democracy and therefore is unsuited for the position and should do the decent thing and resign.
The Opposition expressed concern that despite the overwhelming evidence there is silence from the so-called Guardians of Democracy, several main media houses, civil society, diplomatic community.
“We call on all of these entities to unbury their heads from the sand, to stop being convenient advocates of free and fair elections, and to join the people of Guyana in demanding that GECOM and the Guyana Police Force treat with the necessary urgency and seriousness this blatant attempt by the PPP to rig the 2023 LGE.”
Let it be known, the APNU said, the partnership will not allow this matter to wane with time nor allow their focus to be distracted. “Our outrage will not be calmed. We will not allow the PPP, in cahoots with its agents in GECOM, to rig and steal the 2023 LGE elections. We will not allow the will of the Guyanese people to be perverted by the PPP. Enough is enough.”
The APNU pointed out that “these acts of electoral fraud by the PPP further confirm what we have been saying since the last General Election in 2020. As we have said before, the PPP party rigs elections. The PPP has no interest in free and fair elections. They have no interest in local government. The PPP is disdainful and dismissive of the collective will and concerns of the Guyanese people. The PPP is hell-bent on total domination and control regardless of the cost to the nation.”
It is now clearer than ever that our demand for a clean voters’ list and voting-day biometrics is justified and vindicated. Without credible and acceptable elections, our country will plunge into social and political instability and conflict. We call on all Guyanese, civil society, and friends of the country to join the effort to rescue the country from this impending gloom and doom.
