BROOKLYN, NEW YORK:  The New York based Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID) has slammed the failure of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to announce preliminary results of yesterday’s general elections in the South American republic as “disgraceful and unacceptable incompetence which all Guyanese must reject.”

In a statement released Tuesday, CGID President Rickford Burke said “It is a shame and disgrace that after all these years of trial and error, and hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid, technical support and assistance for capacity building from the international community, the Guyana Elections Commission cannot devise an effective system to transmit results from outlying regions to its headquarters in Georgetown, so as to advise the public of at least preliminary results of an election within a reasonable period after the close of poll.”

Burke, a New York based Guyanese national and former special assistant to the late President of Guyana, Hugh Desmond Hoyte, posited that Guyana only has 470,000 registered voters, and that “election cycle after election cycle, the commission has failed miserably to get this right. The stunning incompetence of the elections commission in this regard is an eyesore to the world and a national ignominy which the Guyanese people must reject out of hand.”

Reacting to comments by GECOM Chairman, Dr. Steve Surujbally, that the commission has had to send back “Statements of Poll” to presiding officers of certain polling station because they contained material enumeration errors, the CGID head observed that “It is unacceptable to me as a Guyanese citizen for the Chairman of the election commission to tell the nation with such untenable glibness that the delay in announcing the results is because of tabulation errors by presiding officers.”

“Has GECOM’s field management and supervisory apparatus suffered a sudden breakdown or is there deliberate,  nefarious activity at play?” Burke questioned.

A “Statements of Poll” is a legal document containing the official results of votes cast at each polling station. It is a criminal offence to tamper with or alter a Statement of Poll. The law requires that they be certified at the close of each poll as being true and correct by the presiding officer as well as the designated polling agents of the parties contesting the elections.

“How in the world can in accurate ‘Statements of Poll’ be submitted to GECOM headquarters when there are regional presiding officers and assistant regional providing officers whose duty under the law is to supervise the implementation of elections laws and to manage the elections process with efficacy at the place of poll?”

Surujbally yesterday admitted at a press conference that GECOM was forced to fire several elections officials during voting for violating elections law. One presiding officer at Everton, East Bebice, was summarily dismissed for giving voters “tendered ballots” to cast initial votes. The law mandates that tendered ballots be reserved for voters whose names have already been checked off on the voters’ roll as having already voted. They cannot be counted as a valid votes unless the commission so sanctions.

Burke added that the incompetence of the commission’s staff, as reflected by the sheer volume of errors that occurred

during the elections process yesterday, can only lead to a reasonable conclusion that GECOM workers were not properly trained and that preparations for the elections were inadequate. “Dr.  Surujbally must therefore accept full responsibility for this failure,” he noted.

The CGID president also emphasized that Guyanese should be vigilant, as the ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has in the past used such delays to conspire to subvert the will of the electorate and to rush the secret investiture of their candidate as President of Guyana before the elections results were certified as required by law.

Under the Guyana constitution no one can contest or question the legality of a President once the oath of office has been administered.

Burke has called on the leadership of the opposition APNU and AFC to comment on the unacceptable state of affairs at GECOM.