Both major political parties claim “commanding lead” in election results

By Radha Motielall and Tracey Khan – Drakes

[www.inewsguyana.com] – As tension mounts in the wait on GECOM to declare the elections results, the two major political parties have gone ahead and disclosed the figures they have to date and based on each declaration, both the PPP/C and APNU+AFC are claiming the lead.

People’s Progressive Party Civic Presidential Candidate Donald Ramotar said “at this point our figures show that we are in the lead. The count we have is as follows: PPP/C 182,664 and APNU-AFC 151,095 from 2213 Statements of Poll”.

But while declaring its own figures on the heels of APNU+AFC, Ramotar condemned the Opposition for doing so. He said the fact that APNU-AFC did this despite GECOM’s continuous warnings against such acts is “reckless and a wanton demonstration of disregard for the related consequences which can lead to instability.”

He said too that this is “clearly a continuous trend by the Opposition to compromise the integrity of the May 11 elections”. According to Ramotar the PPP/C has won Regions One, Two, Three, Five, Six and Nine. He conceded that the APNU+AFC has won Regions, Four, Seven and Ten and said that they are still unsure about Region Eight.

But despite making these pronouncements, Ramotar stated that “irresponsible declaration creates a dangerous situation given that GECOM is yet to announce the official results”.

Meanwhile, the Opposition Coalition told a news conference that it has secured 182,176 votes, while the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has 157,947 a variance of 24,229 votes.

The coalition made the announcement of its commanding lead based on the tabulation of votes on 2,025 Statement of Polls (SOPs) which represents 85% of votes cast.

Presidential Candidate, David Granger explained that they have been tabulating the statement of polls coming into its operations center and have gained some amount of grounds at the PPP/C’s strong hold areas.

“The results show with 88% of the votes that, in what were formerly PPP/C strong-holds in the Essequibo Islands-West Demerara Region, Region No.3; Mahaica-Berbice Region, Region No. 5; and the East Berbice-Corentyne Region, Region No.6, the Coalition has made significant inroads.”

Additionally, in the, “Demerara–Mahaica Region, Region No. 4 and the Upper Demerara-Berbice Region, Region No. 10, the APNU+AFC Coalition has improved its performance from 2011.”

Brigadier Granger also made another call on their supporters, “to remain calm as the official announcement of the results of the elections is awaited. APNU+AFC say all should keep the calm and work in cooperation as GECOM will still be the one to make the official announcement.”

Granger said GECOM’s delay in announcing the winner is abnormal in this technological age and called for the results to be made known soon, noting that it is impossible to prevent the dissemination of these results.

He noted that it was pivotal that they make their supporters aware of what is taking place.

“People here need to know so that they can move on with their lives.”

Meanwhile, Prime Ministerial Candidate of the coalition, Moses Nagamootoo noted that their commanding lead is as a result of their ground fighters who have been working on in all the regions diligently.

In the same breath, Nagamootoo maintained that they are still awaiting the official declaration from the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and they intend to continue to cooperate with the commission in this regard.

It should be noted that only GECOM is legally authorised to announce a winner at the polls along with the election results and not the political parties.