Presidential Candidate Of The PPP/C Donald Ramotar Say's That the General and Regional Elections Were Rigged

Presidential Candidate of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), Donald Ramotar said he believed that the General and Regional Elections were not free and fair, as was declared by the many international observers, but were in fact rigged.

Ramotar on Thursday disputed the declarations made by the international observers that the elections were free, fair and credible. Some five observer missions participated in this year’s elections: those of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR); the Organisation of American States (OAS), the Commonwealth Observer Mission, Caricom, and the Carter Center.

“I would say it is always useful to have international observers. I do not agree with their assessment of these elections, but that does not mean that in the future I would reject them. I think that they probably need to be more,” Ramotar told reporters.

The observers have all commended the electoral process. The Carter Centre commended the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), noting that thousands of dedicated poll workers, party agents and officials of the Commission served with honesty, integrity, and professionalism.

It was noted that during its observation, the Centre had focused on the administration of the electoral process since the team comprised experienced electoral administrators. The Mission said it was impressed with the work of GECOM on Election Day.

Observers from Caricom had found that the electoral process was a free, fair and transparent one, while the OAS had lauded the massive turnout of voters and certified the process. Representatives of UNASUR had praised the electoral systems in place. They pointed out that the voting stages adopted by Guyana are not seen in any other South American country, referring to the ID display in polling stations, the presence of security personnel at all polling stations and political representatives in the stations among others.

Nevertheless, the PPP/C Presidential Candidate said he strongly believed that the elections were rigged by the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC) coalition, which, according to the preliminary results, won the polls. He added that there was collusion between GECOM staff and APNU/AFC members.

Ramotar explained that this was one of the reasons why his party requested a recount of the votes for the General and Regional Elections.

In the meantime, he urged supporters to remain calm and wait patiently on a decision to be made.