“Stop toying with the psyche of the nation and start the recount!”

“Stop toying with the psyche of the nation and start the recount!” – LJP to GECOM Chair

Apr 24, 2020 News

The Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) front runner, Lennox Shuman, has called on the Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Ret’d Justice Claudette Singh, to cease toying with the nation and speedily commence the recount of ballots cast at the March 2, 2020 polls.

Leader of the Liberty and Justice Party, Lennox Shuman

Shuman in a statement on Wednesday blasted the Chair and Elections body for the slothful pace at which they are moving to execute the National Recount. According to him, Guyana is battling with a global pandemic that requires undivided attention.
BELOW IS THE FULL STATEMENT.
The Liberty and Justice Party hereby calls on the Guyana Elections Commission to cease toying with the psyche of the nation and to move to expeditiously recount the votes.
It has been over seven weeks since the ballots were cast on 2 March, 2020 in the Regional and General Elections and yet the country waits for legitimately and transparently tabulated electoral results in keeping with the Representation of the People Act.
With the current pandemic slowly engulfing the country and the looming mental health and economic crises that are on our doorsteps, we are offended, as the rest of the nation is, of the sloth’s pace at which the Commission is dragging and torturing this nation through this process.
The offensive act of Mr. Nagamootoo in his actions against the High-Level Team from CARICOM is as offensive to the nation as much as it was offensive to our CARICOM Partners. To abdicate one’s governing responsibility to the likes of Mr. Nagamootoo; GECOM has finally removed the final veneer and pretence of being an “Independent Constitutional Commission.” By its actions, the Guyana Elections Commission has clearly demonstrated its bias.”
Having witnessed workers working on the APNU aligned Ocean View Hotel beyond 6 pm daily and confining the recount of the Nation’s votes to the dictates of Mr. Nagamootoo demonstrates a genuine and desperate act by this administration to deny the Guyanese people of their legitimately elected government.
That a recount of 479,453 votes, when calculated based on GECOM’s last presented framework, will take upwards of 46 days, and the fact that no start date has yet been announced nor any logistics put in place further exacerbates the impending mental health crisis from the pandemic, the economic meltdown and these poorly executed elections.
We further call on the GECOM to present to the nation, a clear plan on the recount, inclusive of the proposed end date of recount and to take every action necessary to exclude Mr. Clairmont Mingo and all the associated partisan figures from these recounts.
It is time that Madam Chair showed her calibre, live up to her name, stop playing PNC games and stop toying with the nation.