Coalition on misinformation campaign – ‘Stopped counts’, secret meetings, and ‘dead voters’

May 09, 2020 News

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The A Partnership For National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition has apparently embarked on a well-coordinated misinformation campaign, targeting various aspects of the recount process currently being undertaken at the Arthur Chung Conference Center.
Yesterday marked an escalation of a three-day three trend in which coalition representatives and party agents are using social media to disseminate false or misleading information which is then given an attempted credibility by the official campaign.
At around 3 PM yesterday afternoon, almost identical messages began circulating by coalition members and executives with the claim that “Counting stopped” at Stations 5, 8 and 9 for a variety of reasons ranging from an absence of required stamps fixed to ballot papers, “likely evidence of dead or migrated voters” and “questionable ballots.”
Styled as news reports, including prefaced by the term “BREAKING NEWS”, the circulated posts claimed that sources inside the ACCC were providing information in support of the claims made For Station 5, for example, allegations were put forward that “eleven unsigned oaths of identity” were discovered in a Region 3 ballot box. The report said that “an elections expert says that this is a major red flag as it is likely an indication of fraud.” All the reports contained that “senior GECOM personnel” were alerted and that the process was halted.
However, while the information was being circulated, Kaieteur News checked with persons participating in the recount who denied that the recount had stopped as was claimed, and GECOM’s own feed was broadcasting the recount clearly in progress at the stations at which the count was said to be interrupted. Several persons reporting from inside the recount operations also publicly stated that the count was ongoing despite the claims being made.

‘Secret meeting in public tabulations center’
On Thursday, Day Two of the recount, GECOM Public Relations Officer Yolanda Ward found herself having to refute allegations made by APNU+AFC counting agent Daniel Seeram that there was a secret meeting between opposition party agents Frank Anthony and GECOM’s IT technicians.
Before Seeram spoke to the media supporting its claims, a post on the APNU/AFC public Facebook page stated that “GECOM has taken a decision to halt the running tabulation process at the Recount Centre after a secret early morning meeting between the PPP’s agents Frank Anthony, Sasenarine Singh and two others and GECOM Information Technology Supervisor Akeal Giddings and his deputy was busted.”
Seeram in an interview with the media Thursday morning insisted that the meeting was secret and claimed that as far as he knew only GECOM staffers and PPP members were in the room, receiving support in his account by AFC Executive and Minister of Public Works David Patterson.
However, as with yesterday’s posts, as quickly as the claims surfaced, they were shot down by several representatives of other parties and the opposition themselves who were present in the room. More importantly, in an interview with the media that afternoon, Ward disputed Seeram’s portrayal of the encounter, a position that was yesterday supported by coalition GECOM Commissioner, Desmond Trotman who iterated that the incident was considered by the Commission as being misrepresented.
Still, since Thursday, Giddings has been the target of repeated online attacks by coalition members and activists online with security camera footage being shared alleging his ‘clandestine’ meeting with PPP officials, and him supposed having secretly shared GECOM live feed to a PRO-PPP media house.”
The post on the APNU/AFC public Facebook page in verbatim said “GECOM has taken a decision to halt the running tabulation process at the Recount Centre after a secret early morning meeting between the PPP’s agents Frank Anthony, Sasenarine Singh and two others and GECOM Information Technology Supervisor Akeal Giddings and his deputy was busted.”
The coalition also issued a formal call for Giddings to be removed from the tabulations center on the premise that he is allegedly compromised but another coalition Commissioner Vincent Alexander told reporters late yesterday that he didn’t even know about the request to have Giddings removed, let alone consider it.

Dead Voter – not authenticated
On Wednesday, the first day of the recount, again on social media, party agents posted a death certificate this time, with the party claiming to have strong evidence that someone voted for the dead man at a region 2 polling station on March 2 polls.
The certificate listed that an E. Williams died on June 10, 2019. However, the death certificate was only issued on February 2, 2020. Additionally, the name listed on the certificate was not the only voter in the region with that name, and there was no information presented that the E. Williams listed on the certificate even belonged to the region in the first place.
However, despite saying that they have evidence to support the claim, no mention was made of whether the evidence was presented to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to be addressed. GECOM’s Public Relations Officer, Yolanda Ward had told reporters that the Commission acknowledged the claim but are yet to authenticate it.

Endgame
Prime Ministerial Candidate of the APNU+AFC, Khemraj Ramjattan during a telephone interview with this paper was asked to comment on the string of reports emerging from his party. However, Ramjattan told Kaieteur News that “I am not a social media person so I have no comment to make.”
PNC Senior Member, James Bond who has been actively posting and re-sharing many of the allegations was also asked to comment on the string of posts being made.
Bond told Kaieteur News that “The endgame of the APNU/AFC is to ensure that at the end of it all that the integrity of the Commission can be restored, that the electoral process that we have a bit flawed can be corrected, and that at the end of it all, we can see a return to normalcy for the Guyanese citizenry.”

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