Looming general elections… 958 dead people on PLE – says PPP

Sep 02, 2014 News

---

 By Abena Rockcliffe

General Secretary of the People’s Progress Party (PPP), Clement Rohee yesterday asked media operatives to take his word that there are major discrepancies with the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE), and that the names of almost 3000 Guyanese who passed away are still on the list.

At his weekly press conference held at Freedom House, Rohee disclosed that party members who are “working hard on the ground,” have found, thus far, approximately 2,958 dead persons on the PLE.

But after being asked several follow up questions pertaining to this, Rohee told reporters, “look, I am the General Secretary of this party, I would not sit here and give you information that is not credible.”

According to Rohee, checks on the PLE for Regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine accumulatively accounted for 450 of the overall sum of dead voters. He added that Region Three’s list had 232 “dead persons” and 345 were discovered on the Region Two list.

Further, Rohee noted that 430 names of persons who no longer exist were on the list for Region Five while Region Six’s list, with the highest number of dead people, has 925. Regions Four and Ten, separately, had the same number of dead voters; 288.

Rohee told the media that the PPP sent its findings to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) with the hope that the body will pursue as necessary.

When asked what evidence the PPP has to confirm the deaths, Rohee noted that Guyana is a small country and “everybody knows everybody.”

He then said that Party members on the ground got their information from neighbours and relatives when they enquired about persons who they could not locate.

Rohee said that his party once again calls on the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), to ensure a credible list of electors is produced at the end of this current extended period of Claims and Objections.

He echoed sentiments expressed at previous press conferences to the effect that the PPP has always advocated for a list that will not disenfranchise any eligible Guyanese.

Rohee said, “Moreover had it not been for the many struggles over the years, the return to democracy, would have continued to be a figment of our imagination.”

The General Secretary said, “The sixth Cycle of Continuous Registration and the Claims and Objections being no exception, the party through its rigorous field work have uncovered a number of discrepancies with the PLE. The PPP calls on GECOM to take corrective actions now and refrain from issuing ambiguous statements in an effort to cover for a list that is highly questionable.”

He said that GECOM owes the nation a proper explanation for the massive increase of almost 80,000 registrants when previously; the increase was record at 11,000 annually. “Our country will now have a list of over 550,000 electors whenever elections are called.”

Rohee continued to note all that is seemingly wrong at this stage of preparations for General Elections. He noted that, “activists working in Georgetown found an individual with a pre-prepared list at an address which has 18 electors on the PLE but GECOM has refused to conduct a physical verification of these persons.”

The politician said, GECOM must explain how persons living at the same address in Georgetown are being placed on different divisional lists.

Further, Rohee said that, “At Prospect, East Bank Demerara, PPP field workers visited an address to verify information that 10 persons whose address on the PLE, reflected that they were all living at the same address, to our surprise at this address they found an empty lot with over grown bushes unoccupied for the past 8-10 years; reminiscent of the “Trail of the Vanishing Voter”.

The General Secretary told the media that one of the PPP’s major concerns is still the ineffectiveness of GECOM’s mobile units; due to the poor public relation in notifying residents well in advance and the inconvenient days and times for residents. He said that generally, workers get home after 5 pm on week days, yet GECOM is conducting coastland mobiles without any regard to this fact.

Rohee said that the PPP has noted with concern too, the recent statements made by the Opposition Leader with regards to the coalition’s position on the massive increase of electors on the PLE.

The PPP General Secretary said that the Opposition seems to be confident that the list is not padded and has publicly expressed confidence in GECOM.

“This is the same opposition that did not support our request to extend the Claims and Objections Period by seven days; the results are there for the Nation to see with regards to the amount of transactions done during this extended period, the PPP calls on GECOM to make this public, said Rohee.

Rohee, when asked whether the party’s persistent objections to the Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM) Preliminary List of Electors (PLE), were setting the stage to make excuses should it lose at the next general elections, chose to cite a quote by famous Actor Denzil Washington: “King Kong aint get s**t on me,”

He added that the PPP is “in it to win it” and that he is confident that victory for the PPP is the most probable outcome once the election is “free and fair.”

---

---