GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, Tuesday submitted his report to the chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) showing that the ruling coalition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), had won the disputed March 2 regional and general elections.
In his letter to the GECOM chairperson, retired Justice Claudette Singh, the Chief Elections Officer said that he had “taken note of the guidance of the Court of Appeal…in the preparation of my report under Section 96 of the Representation of the People’s Act”.
He said that his report contains “a table showing the credible and valid votes cast in accordance with the Representation of the People’s Act”. In his first report to GECOM earlier this month, Lowenfield had claimed that the results did not meet the standard of fair and credible elections.
“In other words, approximately 55 per cent of all votes cast for general elections stand to be impacted due to either anomalies and/or voter impersonation or unreconciled ballot boxes. Specifically, 7.2 per cent of the votes cast were impacted by anomalies, 39.2 per cent were impacted by voter impersonation, 3.4 per cent impacted by both anomalies/irregularities and voter impersonation, and 5.7 per cent impacted by unreconciled ballot boxes,” he wrote then.
According to Lowenfield’s new tabulation, the coalition received 171 825 votes as compared with 166 343 votes cast on behalf of the main opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C).
Based on his calculation, the coalition APNU will have 33 seats in the National Assembly, with the PPP/C gaining 31 seats and the parties on the Joined Lists gaining one seat.
The final report to the Chair and members of the Commission differ from the total vote recount.