Leader of the Justice For All Party (JFAP) CN Sharma is calling for a probe into recent findings that suggest his party won a seat at the August 28 general and regional elections.
In a letter to the US Ambassador to Guyana David Robinson, Sharma said the party continues to be ignored and slighted by the leadership of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), the private sector, the media and the international community. "Now we hope that GECOM and all of the relevant institutions, agencies and bodies both local and international, will pursue this matter with urgency and make their findings public without further delay," he said in the letter, which was sent on Friday. He notes that a missing parliamentary seat is a matter of great concern even to a large party. "How much more intense is that gravity to a small party and its supporters placed in the same situation, especially when the missing seat represents its very first after [three] elections?"
The letter is copied to the British High Commission, the European Union, the Canadian High Commission, the Caricom Secretariat, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the UN Observer Agency, the GHRA, the Electoral Assis-tance Bureau, the Private Sector Commission and media houses. GECOM is not listed among the organisations that received a copy.
The commission has not commented publicly on the issue, and Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally told Stabroek News last week that this course of action is in keeping with the advice of its lawyers. He also noted that in light of the elections petitions that have been filed by the AFC and the PNCR, the matter is now sub judice. As a result, it would be inappropriate for public comment on the case and it could amount to contempt.
According to Sharma, his party lost 301 votes between the night of August 30, 2006, when the figure stood at 2,872 and the results subsequently released by the commission on September 3, which put the number at 2,571. He says the figure was further reduced to 2,565. Sharma says despite the reduced allotment of votes, the registered Electoral Formula of GECOM when applied still allocates a parliamentary seat to the JFAP.
The bases for the JFAP's claims are the errors in the results of the elections that were discovered during an analysis that was done by former GECOM Commissioner Haslyn Parris. Parris has said he found that the seat allocation should have resulted in the PPP/C with 35 seats; PNCR-1G 22; AFC 5; GAP-ROAR 1; TUF 1; and JFAP 1. He explained that his findings differed from GECOM's officially declared results by allocating a seat to the JFAP and reducing by one the 36 seats allocated to the PPP/C. He said it also indicated that the five AFC seats should have been two from the geographical constituencies Four and Ten, and three from their top up list. Parris communicated his findings to GECOM, and afterward PNCR leader Robert Corbin called on the commission to ensure that the official results accurately reflect the will of the electorate.
Sharma commended Corbin for ensuring that the information was made public, and he thanked Parris for his professionalism in sharing his findings with the management of GECOM. At the same time, he noted with amazement how well-qualified members of watchdog groups, the donors and the diplomatic community allowed the country to be "bludgeoned by government and GECOM into silence as these two giants sought to justify their arithmetical errorsā€¦." He also lamented the credit given to GECOM Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally by the Commonwealth Secretariat, in light of what Parris had described as the irreversible flaws of the elections. Moreover, Sharma blamed Dr Surujbally for Parris's resignation from the commission and he said the former commissioner's stance has been validated by the series of legal and moral blunders experienced by the commission and the government as a result of the errors.
The letter also criticised donor countries like the US, UK and Canada. It questioned their concern for the people of the country in light of inequality of access to political messages that resulted from the government's monopoly on Radio, and the lack of transparency about the results. "Even now it seems that GECOM and the administration have closed ranks behind the door of a petition, while ignoring the obvious moral option of decency and fairness by making the true results public," he said. "Why get legalistic with the truth when certain laws were conveniently bent after the elections to accommodate the flaws observed by many before the elections?"