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Coalition claims clandestine meeting between GECOM IT Staff, PPP
– GECOM’s Ward disproves as unfounded
Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Public Relations Officer, Yolanda Ward, was forced yesterday to dispel a claim made by members of the APNU+AFC Coalition that members of the PPP were in a secret meeting with the Commission.
GECOM’s Yolanda Ward
At around 9am yesterday, a message was circulated by coalition members and on its social media pages claiming that: “In a stunning development at the Recount Centre, GECOM’s Information Technology Supervisor and the Deputy IT Supervisor were early this morning caught red-handed in a secret meeting with four opposition People’s Progressive Party agents at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre. When confronted by an APNU+AFC agent who was tipped off about the secret meeting neither the IT Supervisor nor his Deputy could provide an explanation for the meeting. The four PPP agents could also not proffer any reason for the highly improper meeting. The meeting was being held in secret in the tabulation room at the counting centre well before the arrival of other officials. It appeared as though there was a coordinated plan between the two GECOM IT staff members and the PPP agents to arrive early and conduct the secret meeting.”
The APNU+AFC agent, who purportedly made the discovery, was former Guyana Defence Force Captain, Daniel Seeram, a candidate for the Coalition in the 2020 elections. Seeram told reporters that when he entered the tabulation room yesterday morning, he saw four PPP agents, including Dr. Frank Anthony and Sasenaraine Singh, holding a meeting with two GECOM IT staff.
“When I entered the room,” Seeram told reporters, “I said I didn’t know that there was a very early morning meeting and I wasn’t invited… The IT persons did indicate the questions that were asked by the PPP but I don’t think that those were all the questions that were asked, but when I got into the room, it got silent when they saw my presence.”
When questioned about claims that other persons were present in the area of the secret meeting, Seeram responded: “No observers were in the room at the time. This was at 8 in the morning and people were now coming to go upstairs. For other political parties, at this point in time, I can’t say directly if other political parties were sitting in the room.”
Shortly after that message began being shared widely; however, The Citizenship Initiative Presidential Candidate, Rondha-Ann Lam, who is accredited as a tabulation agent, posted a Facebook status disputing the narrative.
“I am in the tabulation room,” Lam stated, “There was no secret meeting nor cloak and dagger hastily arranged meetings. We all heard the [IT] head repeat what he was asked and his answer. In fact, close to 20 people heard it. This is irresponsible posting to incite a party base and malign people’s character. It can also put GECOM staff at risk.”
Her account was in keeping with the answer given by Ward when questioned about the incident during a briefing with the media yesterday.
“GECOM has a tabulation centre,” Ward told reporters, “that is located in a dome. I cannot understand how a space that is accessible to all party agents now becomes a private space… My understanding is that two of the IT staff[ers] were setting up their work area, they were approached by two party agents, and it was from there the whole thing [was spun] out of proportion as being a secret meeting.”
Ward also said, contrary to the Coalition claims, that there was no link between any GECOM decision on tabulation and the encounter between Seeram and the PPP agents and the IT staff.
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