“King Kong ain’t get sh*t on me” – Rohee defends PPP’s objections to PLE

 

By Kurt Campbell

[www.inewsguyana.com] –General Secretary of the ruling People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C), Clement Rohee recalled a quote by famous Actor Denzil Washington: “King Kong aint get shit on me,” when asked whether the Party’s persistent objections to the Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM) Preliminary List of Electors (PLE), were setting the stage to make excuses should it lose at the next general elections.

Over the last weeks the PPP/C has continuously pointed to what it says are discrepancies in the PLE.

At a press conference today, Monday, September 1, Rohee claimed that the Party, through rigorous field work, uncovered major discrepancies with the PLE and called on GECOM to take corrective action.

Among those discrepancies are:

– some 2958 ‘dead persons’ including former President Arthur Chung and the wife of the late President Forbes Burnham, Viola Burnham are on the list

– ‎at Lot 24 Public Road, Prospect- East Bank of Demerara ten persons were listed on the PLE at this address, this is said to be an empty lot with overgrown bushes and unoccupied for over 8 years

– 80,000 new registrants when it was recorded previously at 11,000 annual –

‎ – persons registered in different divisional list from where they reside

Rohee pointed out that the PPP objections are mainly to ensure free, fair and transparent elections and called on GECOM to stop issuing ambiguous statements for a list that is highly questionable.

“We believe in an orderly, peaceful and transparent election. We fought tooth and nail for that, we have gone to prison for that and we have died for that… but it seems as though on the opposite side it is not in their interest to have orderly and peaceful elections but one that is characterized by confusion, because with confusion the results can be questioned,” he said.

“We want to start from now to ensure that the process is clean, orderly and transparent… PPP calls on GECOM to ensure credible list of electors produced at the end of this extended period of Claims and Objections,” Rohee told reporters.

He said the PPP hopes that its worst fears will not be confirmed; explaining that their worst fear is that the “list is unacceptable because it is padded with underage and dead people and it will be rejected… that is our worst fear.”

He continues to reiterate the Party’s call for a clean and credible list and urged GECOM to take corrective action.

Yesterday, Deputy Chief Elections Officer Vishnu Persaud told iNews that some of the problems arise from persons changing their address [which GECOM cannot prevent them from doing] and not making an application for transfer [which is not mandatory].

 

In relation to the alleged 2,958 dead persons on the list, Persaud said GECOM follows an established procedure when flagging dead persons which is to act on reports from the General Register Office (GRO).

 

“We view reports from the GRO as authentic and that is what we use as out basis for flagging dead people,” he said; adding that “I’m sure we will see a problem if we remove persons without the relevant documents.”

 

He clarified too that in relation to the unoccupied house lot at Prospect, the persons who resided there now lives at a relative’s house, two streets away after the house collapsed a year ago.