• Live
    • Audio Only
  • google plus
  • facebook
  • twitter
News > Guyana

Guyana: Ruling Party Claims Victory With Contested Data

  • Police officers close access to the Gecom command-center, Georgetown, Guyana, March 6, 2020.

    Police officers close access to the Gecom command-center, Georgetown, Guyana, March 6, 2020. | Photo: teleSUR

Published 6 March 2020
Opinion

Opposition parties denounce electoral fraud and the breakdown of democracy in this South American country.

On Thursday night, with no official election results, militants of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) began celebrating their victory in the presidential elections held on March 2, while the opposition People's Progressive Party (PPP) denounced electoral fraud and the breakdown of democracy in Guyana.

RELATED:

Bomb Threat, Lack of Election Results Raise Tension in Guyana

"The kidnapping of the elections is a coup d'etat," is the phrase that a militant PPP used to summarize​​​ the situation experienced since midnight on Wednesday after an official was later caught supposedly modifying results.

Then the publication of data was suspended and it was announced that all the votes would be counted again. But this did not happen.

On Thursday morning, dozens of unhappy and tense people remained inside the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) command center waiting for the authorities to offer some explanation about the status of the count.

This also did not happen because an alleged bomb threat forced momentarily citizens, representatives of political parties, and international observers to leave the building​​​​​​​.​​​​​​​

For the rest of the day, the Gecom Chairman remained isolated in her office without maintaining contact with the media or international election observers. At that time, it was rumored that APNU militants had "kidnapped" her.

Finally, the GECOM released unverified figures according to which the ruling party APNU-AFC was winning the election with an advantage of 7,000 votes.​​​​​​​

The opposition PPP and 5 other parties rejected the unverified results and called for the Guyanese to reject the UNPA attempt to claim victory in a process that had evidenced multiple irregularities.

In the early hours of Friday, all people were evicted from the Gecom command-center. On this occasion, however, there was no bomb threat.

Guyana dawned with a more polarized and tense political environment. ​​​​​​​The current political dispute could even lead to an accentuation of ethnic problems in this country.

While the UNPA coalition is mostly backed by people of African descent, the PPP mainly represents descendants of Indian workers who came in the country in the 19th century.

These parties also endorse different conceptions of how future oil revenues should be used. The UNPA promised to finance cash transfers, invest in infrastructure, and foster the diversification of the economy.

The opposition PPP has criticized President David Granger for "not insisting that Exxon give a greater percentage of oil revenue to the state, but says it plans to maintain the contract intact,” the St. Kitts & Nevis Observer reported.​​​​​​​

Comment
0
Comments
Post with no comments.