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Jagdeo slams Opposition over attempts to discredit GECOM
Kaieteur News- Vice President (VP) Bharrat Jagdeo has slammed the Opposition parties and other organisations for what he describes as an orchestrated plan to bring the credibility of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) into question.
“We have had quite a week of audacious demonization of GECOM all with the motive of destroying the credibility of GECOM in a patently unfair manner by a number fringe of organizations and political parties And I think the motive is, should they be able to or succeed in destroying the credibility of GECOM, they may be able to cast doubts on any elections conducted by GECOM,” Jagdeo said.
Vice President (VP) Bharrat Jagdeo
The Vice President said that some of the organisations engaged in the attack on the Elections Commission “… it is orchestrated and several of these that don’t have membership…but they are boldly making statements and putting out press releases and getting a lot of these press releases represented in the newspapers and mainstream media.”
At his weekly press conference, held on Thursday Jagdeo, who is also the General Secretary of the ruling People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP) party said that he is convinced that there is a concerted attempt to discredit and smear the reputation of the Chairperson of GECOM Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh.
“I think the primary target of the abuse is the Chair of GECOM. Had the Chair of GECOM not stood up in 2020, APNU would have succeeded in stealing the elections and I think they are still bitter about that…so if there is anyone who is credible or organizations or leadership, it is the Commission and not the secretariat and that is why to ensure that they restore credibility to the secretariat, some of the people had to be replaced by professionals and that is what is happening there,” the VP added.
Over the past week, the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), the Alliance For Change (AFC), A New and United Guyana (ANUG) and Trade Union umbrella body, the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), all expressed their growing concern over the management of the Elections Commission and the work of the Chairman of the Commission.
On Sunday, the AFC said it would hold consultations on whether to boycott next year’s general elections if Justice Singh remains GECOM’s Chairman, saying that she presided over the illegal occupation of a joinder parliamentary seat.
The Liberty and Justice Party (LJP), ANUG and The New Movement (TNM) contested the March 2020 elections as a “joinder” and after the polls, their individual votes were added and they were awarded one parliamentary seat. The LJP won 2,657 votes, ANUG, 2,313 and TNM, 244.
In keeping with a rotation agreement among those parties, LJP Leader, Lenox Shuman first occupied the parliamentary seat. Wary that the TNM, with 244 votes, would have been shut out of parliament during the five-year election term, the parties had agreed to allow that party’s leader, Dr. Asha Kissoon to serve her entitled 91 days. She was sworn in on April 24, 2023 but has since refused to resign to allow an ANUG representative to serve as a parliamentarian.
(Jagdeo slams Opposition over attempts to discredit GECOM)
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