Tag Archives: Guyana Elections 2011

EAB final report urges more oversight on campaign spending

04/02/2012 – 7:38 am

November 28th Elections….EAB final report urges more oversight on campaign spending

MARCH 28, 2012 | BY KNEWS

-cites unfair media access by incumbent party

Watchdog body, EAB, has called for more oversight in the use of state resources by the incumbent party during elections

 The Electoral Assistance Bureau (EAB) has recommended that the legislation on political campaigning should address the misuse of state resources by the incumbent…a persistent problem which is being raised by opposition parties.
According to the watchdog EAB, the legislation should elaborate a full set of specific ways in which state resources cannot be used during elections campaign periods. Further, a series of penalties for violation of any of these prescriptions should be introduced.   Continue reading →

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Amerindians faced disadvantages in general election – EAB

04/02/2012 – 7:13 am

Amerindians faced disadvantages in general election – Elections Assistance Bureau Report

(Demerara Waves) – April 1, 2012

Amerindians encountered difficulties before and during last year’s general election, resulting in low voter-turnout, a large number of rejected ballots in at least three hinterland regions, according to the Electoral Assistance Bureau (EAB).

The EAB- one the local entities that was accredited by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM)- found that Indigenous peoples were also fooled on the campaign trail in the run-up to the November 28 general and regional elections.

At the very basic level, the observer mission found that folding ballots was a major problem in Indigenous communities. “There were a considerable number of voters who did not fully comprehend how to fold their ballots. This problem was prevalent in indigenous communities and among the elderly,” said the EAB in its recently released report. Continue reading →

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Electoral Assistance Bureau Report – 2011 Elections – commentary

04/02/2012 – 7:02 am

EAB report – 2011 Elections – Commentary

By Stabroek News  – April 1, 2012 Editorial

The EAB has spoken.  Not, one fears, that this might have much impact on our two main political parties, both of whom are long on mistrust and short on reason.  For those who operate in an altogether less conspiratorial context, however, the report of the Electoral Assistance Bureau on the November 28, 2011 elections is a very welcome intervention. If one has a regret, it is that the report did not come sooner, before the major parties gave public expression to their fantasies about the outcome of the poll.

The findings of the EAB cannot be easily dismissed. The organization has a commendable track record going back to the 1992 elections, and of all the observers has unparalleled experience of the elections processes, parties and conditions here. According to its website, in addition to its observer activities, it undertook a detailed assessment of the Statements of Poll (SoPs), which necessitated gaining access to the collections held by Gecom, the PPP/C, APNU and the AFC. Both the Guyana Elections Commission and the political parties co-operated with the bureau in this regard.    Continue reading →

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Different strokes: General elections in Guyana and Jamaica

01/12/2012 – 5:41 am

Different strokes: General elections in Guyana and Jamaica

By   |  COMMENTS  |  EDITORIAL | TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2012

A matter of mere hours after the close of poll following Jamaica’s December 29 general elections, Portia Simpson-Miller, perhaps surprisingly, only one of four women ever to be elected head of government in the Commonwealth Caribbean, had delivered her victory speech; outgoing Prime Minister Andrew Holness had conceded defeat, his two-month tenure as the country’s youngest ever prime minister having been the shortest ever. It was also the first time ever that a political party had been voted out of office in Jamaica after only a single term.

As an aside, Andrew Holness’ defeat raised – though in an entirely different context – a matter that has also been the subject of much public discourse in Guyana, namely, the pension entitlement of an outgoing head of government.     read more

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Boodhoo’s first calculation had given PPPC parliamentary majority

01/06/2012 – 3:07 am

Chief Election Officer’s first calculation had given PPPC parliamentary majority

Demerara Waves – January 4, 2012

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) almost gave the Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) a 33-seat majority due to a miscalculation by the Chief Election Officer, Gocool Boodoo- a scenario he has denied.

“I have no knowledge of that. I am not aware of that,” Boodoo told Demerara Waves Online News (www.demwaves.com).

But official minutes of the commission meeting on election results day- November 30- tell another story that has been corroborated by a GECOM insider.

Noting that the Chief Election Officer is required by law to present the results to the commission before a final declaration is made, the source said Boodoo’s calculation was erroneous. Commissioner, Vincent Alexander unearthed the discrepancy and it was re-calculated based on the formula to reflect the PPPC getting 32 seats,  A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) 26 and the Alliance For Change seven. All of the commissioners then accepted the results.

Demwaves.com was told that Alexander had objected to the first calculation that had given the PPPC 33 seats with 48.57 percent of the votes, the AFC six seats and APNU 26 seats.     Read more

Also read:

AFC could ask for Chief Election Officer to go

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APNU says: “Significant discrepancies in Statements of Poll”

01/06/2012 – 3:06 am

APNU says significant discrepancies in SOPs, wants hardcopies

Demerara Waves – January 3, 2012

The opposition coalition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) says it was unable to reconcile the electronic copies of the elections Statements of Poll (SOPs) it received from the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) with its own because of a significant number of discrepancies.

A letter to GECOM Chairman Dr. Steve Surujbally dated December 30, 2011 was released to the media by the APNU on Tuesday in which the coalition stated its position.

“After a full and careful examination, we have found it impossible to reconcile the two sets of SOPs since in a significant number of instances the SOPs are not identical, which, you will concede, they ought to be,” the missive from APNU’s Election Agent Joseph Harmon read.

APNU senior member Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine was reluctant to comment on the nature of the discrepancies when contacted by Demerara Waves Online News (www.demerarawaves.com).

“There are issues having to do with ballot box numbers not being equivalent you know, little variances, we’ll provide a list of them at the end but what I want to do is to be able to check them out. I don’t want us to go public and say there are such massive variations because they look massive but they require further work for us to complete our assessment,” he said.   Read More

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APNU sees discrepancies in the Statements of Poll

12/16/2011 – 2:33 am

APNU sees discrepancies in the Statements of Poll

Demerara Waves – December 15, 2011

A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) says there are discrepancies between the records of the Statements of Poll (SoPs) provided by the Guyana Elections Commission and its own of the  November 28 polls and it intends to pursue them.

At an APNU news briefing on Thursday coalition official Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine urged reporters to await the final report from the verification exercise which is expected to be completed Friday evening. The party had earlier said it expected the exercise to be finished by midweek.

“I don’t want to give you partial findings; what I can tell you is that there have been a number of inconsistencies, anomalies which we are attempting to pursue and attempting to analyse, that much I can say. There has not been a complete convergence and in that regard we don’t at this moment wish to speculate on either the scale of that convergence or lack of convergence and what its implications are,” Dr. Roopnaraine stated.     Read More

Post #957

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Youth group denies calling for boycott of dozens of businesses

12/13/2011 – 8:52 pm

Youth group denies calling for boycott of dozens of businesses

Demerara Waves – December 13, 2011

The Youth Coalition for Transformation (YCT) is calling on youths to be “fiscally conservative” with their cash even as it rejects reports that it has called for a boycott of dozens of businesses supportive of the ruling PPP/C.

The group, with many of its key members being PNCR members and supporters, held its first media briefing on Tuesday at City Hall where it categorically denied a report carried in the Guyana Times newspaper.

That report stated that there was a list with the names of some 70 businesses which the YCT has called to be boycotted. The group said its call has only targeted two specific businesses.

“Whilst representatives of the YCT have made specific calls for youths to abstain from spending lavishly to attend functions promoted by Kashif and Shanghai and Hits and Jams Promotions, the organisation has not issued, endorsed nor supported any list of businesses to be boycotted,” young attorney James Bond read from a statement.     Read more

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Elections outcome could bring national healing, says Kwayana

12/13/2011 – 7:33 pm

Elections outcome could bring national healing, says Kwayana

– hopes parties will pursue unity gov’t

Stabroek News – by Mark McGowan| COMMENTS | December 11, 2011

With the outcome of the recent general elections, former WPA executive member Eusi Kwayana believes Guyana has its best opportunity to end years of bitter rivalry between the major races and he says now is the ideal time for the political parties to work towards a national unity government.

Guyanese of Indian and African descent have been in rivalry since colonial times and this has been perpetuated into the modern day because both the PNC and the PPP/C regimes excluded other races, Kwayana, a stalwart in local politics, argues. As a result of this history, he believes that “any serious offspring of a slave or an indentured servant” would not want to spend the rest of his/her life fighting each other.   Continue reading →

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Completion of SOPs verification by midweek – APNU

12/13/2011 – 7:01 am

Completion of SOPs verification by midweek – APNU

Demerara Waves – December 12, 2011

Opposition coalition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) says it expects to complete the verification of the Statements of Poll (SOPs) exercise sometime by mid-week.

The coalition had demanded an all-party verification of the SOPs following the declaration of the November 28 elections results on December 1. The APNU has contended that there were too many discrepancies in the electoral process and while it has not rejected the PPP/C’s victory it had pressed for the verification of the results.              Continue reading →

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