Presiding Officer alleges fraud with official poll figures
ROXROY Wyles, a Presiding Officer in Region Four (Demerara/Mahaica) for the 1997 general elections yesterday alleged that fraud had been committed with one of the documents reporting the results. He made the allegation while under cross-examination by Mr Raphael Trotman, one of the lawyers representing the petitioner, Esther Perreira, in the elections petition before Justice Claudette Singh. Wyles, who was trained in his duties before being stationed at a Salvation Army building in Georgetown for the balloting, said it was his understanding that the Statements of Poll (SOPs) were legal requirements and the only documents from which official declarations could have been made. He agreed that tally sheet should not have been used for that purpose and, when shown an SOP related to the national voting purporting to have been prepared by him, Wyles denied preparing it. After disclaiming another, he recognised his signature on a third. But, after perusing it, the witness recanted and said he did not make the document. "I see on it written `Regional'. I did not write the word `Regional'. I made a `General' Statement of Poll. I did not authorise anyone to write the word `Regional' on my `General' Statement of Poll.' He accepted, from Trotman, the proposition that "someone elsewhere" had taken the results he tallied for the general elections and written on the word `Regional'. Wyles concurred with counsel's suggestion that for someone to do that transposition would amount to an act of fraud. He maintained he did not submit a Regional SOP. "Because I had only one document, I presented one General Statement of Poll of the count to the Deputy Returning Officer," the witness recalled. He added that the exhibited Regional SOP presented by the Elections Commission and referred to as having been prepared by him with his signature was, in fact, his General SOP that now has scratches and changes. "The document shows that the word `General' has been scratched out and replaced with the word `Regional' which was done by someone else without my knowledge and authority," Wyles charged. He said there were other cancellations on the document with his signature that he neither made nor authorised. One of the erasures showed that the People's Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) votes had been increased from 18 to 25 without his knowledge or authority, Wyles swore. According to him, another indicated that the total number of votes had been changed from 177 to 185 and he was not responsible for any of those alterations. Wyles is one of the witnesses being questioned for answers to support Perreira's claim that the 1997 polls were so flawed that the outcome cannot be said to accurately reflect the will of the electorate. However, one of the Presiding Officers called yesterday, Verna Grimmond was not cross-examined as her testimony did not conflict with the case for the petitioner, Trotman admitted. Wyles said, at the close of polling, he counted the ballots and allocated them to the contestants. He said, because the authorities had given him just one General SOP, he confined himself to writing everything on it. He had signed the certificate and placed it in an envelope that he forwarded to the Deputy Returning Officer the same night of the elections. Wyles said the results of the Regional Elections were recorded on tally sheets. Earlier, he was led through evidence-in-chief by Mr Hubert Rodney, who is part of the legal team appearing for respondent Chief Elections Officer Stanley Singh. In her quest, Perreira, a People's National Congress (PNC) supporter of Lot 75 South Sophia, Greater Georgetown, has named, as respondents, too, the List Representatives of the political parties that contested, including former Presidents Janet Jagan, of the PPP/Civic and PNC Leader Desmond Hoyte. But all the politicians cited, except Hamilton Green of A Good and Green Guyana (AGGG), have pledged to abide the ruling on these proceedings which continue today.
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