Golding hits election fraud in Guyana election recount

Organisation of American States (OAS) observer team head, former Jamaican PM, Bruce Golding, on Wednesday alleged electoral fraud in the recount of the Guyana general elections, citing four ballot box results altered in favour of the ruling APNU.

"I have never seen a more transparent effort to alter the results of an election," he declared in a Facebook "live" recording.

"You know it takes an extraordinarily courageous mind to present fictitious numbers, when such a sturdy paper-trail exists. This is being illustrated now at the recount."

"In ballot box 4062 the statement of poll had indicated 182 votes for APNU and 43 votes for PPP/Civic. The returning officer reported those results as 292 votes for APNU and 33 votes for PPP." The recount confirmed the original results, he said.

Golding said at box 4063, the statement of poll indicated 15 votes for APNU (and) 276 votes for PPP, but the returning officer declared 85 votes for APNU and 246 votes for PPP. He said a recount matched the original numbers.

Golding said at box 4064, the statement of poll showed 70 votes for APNU and 93 votes for PPP. The returning officer declared 170 votes for APNU and 73 votes for PPP. The recount confirmed the election night figures, inclusive of four rejected ballots now included.

At box 4074, the statement of poll showed 86 votes for APNU and 84 votes for PPP. The returning officer declared 140 votes for APNU and 64 votes for PPP, but the recount matched the first results. Golding's face and voice indicated his incredulity at the changed results.

Ambassador Noel Lynch, chair of the Caricom group at OAS on Wednesday hailed Golding's perseverance and voiced Caricom's insistence on democratic practices.

"If each of the political parties genuinely believe it has won, then they should have no fear of the current recount, and they should all support it. Caricom's interest is that, at the end of the recounting process, democracy must be the winner."

Lynch said most Caricom nations are held together by values rooted in centuries of history and fraternity, and in a bitter struggle for their peoples' rights such as the right to elect governments freely and fairly in a democratic process.

"If democracy fails in any Caricom country, it fails in the larger Community. If it is imperilled in any part of our Community, it is imperilled everywhere in it. As an institution, Caricom cannot allow this to happen in any member state.

"Democracy is sacrosanct in Caricom as a treaty organisation, and the institution will not abide its erosion."