Guyana’s Major Political Parties Accuse Each Other, As Country Awaits Election Results

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, March 4, 2020 (CMC) – The two main contenders in Monday’s regional and general elections traded accusations, late last night, as Guyana continues to wait to find out, officially, which one of them will control the affairs of the country for the next five years.

The ruling coalition — A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC) — said it wanted to “strongly condemn” a statement, released by the main opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) calling on the police, “to take all necessary steps to protect all public buildings, which house government offices including, but not limited to, all Ministries of the government”.

“We have received credible information that attempts are being made to remove and destroy important records of the government of Guyana and other public documents and moveable assets of the State,” the opposition party said in its statement, adding “we expect the Guyana Police Force to discharge its statutory duty, in protecting and preserving official records of the government of Guyana and all government and State properties”.

But the coalition said that it “strongly condemns the reckless and irresponsible statement, issued by the opposition”, claiming that it is “based on absolute falsehoods and manufactured information and is clearly designed to excite and incite the public”.

“It is evident that this statement is a manifestation of the throes of desperation that the PPP has found itself in, as the results of the yesterday’s General and Regional Elections are becoming clearer to those at Freedom House (the headquarters of the opposition party),” APNU-AFC said.

The coalition said it was reiterating an earlier call to all of Guyana and, more specifically, its supporters, ”to continue to exercise patience, as we await the official announcement of the results by the Guyana Elections Commission”.

“We also repeat our call for citizens to remain calm and go about their business, in an atmosphere of peace and optimism,” the coalition said, and added it is “confident that it will be returned to government for a second term to continue the work of building and developing Guyana”.

“The Elections Commission is doing a methodical job and has started to release the figures of the polls conducted yesterday. We have every confidence in GECOM in the administration of this election and our internal figures, which we are comparing with the GECOM-delivered results, show an unmistakable trend towards an APNU+AFC victory.”

The coalition said that it is aware that some, if not most of the international observer missions, will be leaving Guyana shortly “and we wish to take this opportunity to thank them and the local missions for their work in Guyana, over the election period. Democracy is alive and well in Guyana”.