The Elections Commission has initiated an investigation into the results it has published for Regions Three and Four as requested by the PNC REFORM.

The PPP/Civic is also to request such a probe, as it claimed it had found discrepancies in results computed for two areas.

In the interim, PNC REFORM chairman, Robert Corbin, cautioned his party's supporters to be calm and vigilant and promised to accept the elections results if the process was transparent.

In a letter to Chairman of the Elections Commission Major General Joe Singh yesterday, Corbin pointed to "a discrepancy in the results for the PPP/C in District Three which shows more than 3,000 additional votes for that party than the number reflected in the figures derived from the statement of poll for that district."

Corbin said too that "the same trends appear in some of the preliminary results announced for Georgetown in District Four," adding that in such circumstances "the PNC will have great difficulty in endorsing the preliminary results being announced by the commission until a reconciliation of the figures is possible."

Asked at a press conference last night whether the commission was addressing the PNC REFORM's complaints, Chief Election Officer (ag) Gocool Boodoo said the commission would have to answer that since such responsibility did not fall under his purview as he was only the head of the commission's secretariat.

And PPP/Civic General Secretary, Donald Ramotar, at a press conference yesterday afternoon, said his party had proof of wrong figures being computed at GECOM to the detriment of the PPP/C.

Ramotar held up documents which he said showed one example each of mistakes made when computing the results of polling stations at Covent Garden and the Guyana School of Agriculture. The results at these polling stations showed that the PPP/C had won the most votes but the larger amount was tallied for the PNC/R instead.

PPP central executive committee member Ralph Ramkarran said these errors will be taken up with GECOM and he was sure that they would be addressed.

Likewise, the commission will surely address any errors found by the PNC/R, too, he said. The problems encountered by the PNC/R were not peculiar to that party, he stated.

Corbin told a press conference earlier in the day that with regard to Region Four, it had been hard to reconcile figures for Georgetown which showed the PPP/C with 132,000 votes and his party with 137,000. The figures the PNC had, save for a few divisions in Kitty, gave the PPP/C 18,000 and his party 57,000.

He said that based on the results the PNC had from the divisions it had analysed "the elections were very close and the PNC REFORM remains very optimistic."

Corbin criticised the format in which the results were being reported which made it difficult for people to determine whether the official results of their polling place had been accurately transmitted, recorded and published by the Elections Commission.

"Unless the format is adjusted, reconciliation of the announced results with the statements of poll, with the possible exception of District Four will be impossible."

Corbin said the change in the reporting format for District Four resulted from representation by its representatives on the commission.

He said too that the PNC wanted the commission to return to the practice of announcing the results of each polling station to which Guyanese were accustomed.

Corbin in response to several questions said that the PNC REFORM documented complaints from 2,500 people on Monday who were disenfranchised by either being omitted from the final voters list erroneously for one reason or another or given addresses in another district. He said he was sure that several thousand more were similarly affected.

To questions about irregularities reported by its agents on Monday, Corbin said these were either reported to the police or the Elections Commission. He said that the party took that course of action to defuse tension, adding that it had not publicised an incident at Zee Lust where its agents were chased out of the polling place with cutlasses. He said that the intervention of the police was sought to have the issue resolved.

Corbin asserted that the party also acted responsibly over the national ID cards found at the dumpsite. He said that he had rung Commission Chairman Joe Singh about the discovery. He said that the party acted in that way to allow the commission to address an obvious breach of its security.

He disagreed with Singh that only one card was found, explaining that the party had pictures of three that had been found. He said that the PNC had also interviewed quietly two of the persons for whom the cards had been made and the report sent to the commission.

With regard to the persons who were disenfranchised, Corbin blamed the errors on the Information Systems Department of the commission whose technical officers, he said, misled the commission by assuring that the errors, which had been brought to the attention of the commission, had been addressed.

He urged an audit of all the transactions related to the voters list and the database from which it was generated. But he noted that an audit would not restore the persons who had been disenfranchised, expressing disappointment that the PNC's representations about its concerns about the operations of computer department were not entertained.

About the complaints of disenfranchisement, Ramotar said his party had cause to complain about similar problems in its strongholds.

He noted that GECOM, the international observer teams and local observers had already testified to the systemic nature of these difficulties at all the polling stations throughout the country.

Ramotar also pointed out that the PPP/C had not been in favour of GECOM's temporary decision to extend the time of polling.

He said it was observed that only certain polling stations, mainly in Georgetown, seemed to have been informed of this decision.

"Indeed the temporary extension of polling time opened the window for multiple voting, and other forms of irregular activities in several of the Georgetown polling centres," the PPP general secretary said.

He said while the party was concerned over the irregularities resulting from the poll extension, it was encouraged by the findings of the observers that the irregularities could not affect the outcome of the elections.

Elections broadly met international benchmarks

EU, Long-Term Observer missions

The Joint European Union and Long-Term Observer Mission has stated that the elections have broadly met international benchmarks and that omissions from the voters list were not confined to any particular region or party.

The election observation mission issued its preliminary statement yesterday at the Cara Inn. The detailed report covers the five months the two teams have been in place starting with the claims and objections period described as "frustrating for the ordinary citizen ...."

In its assessment of polling day the two teams, with some 65 observers covering 571 stations, said that "voters across the country were peaceful and patient" and "very few irregularities were reported... However, the voters list, despite substantial efforts by GECOM, contained a number of flaws. In particular, a number of people who had taken time to be photographed, and in some cases even possessed a national ID card, did not appear in the correct division of the official list of electors. This created understandable frustration among citizens across the country and among supporters of all parties."

Head of the Guyana Long-Term Observation Group, Simon Osborn, said that apart from complaints received by observers, it was impossible to quantify the numbers of persons who were affected.

The statement continued: "the extension of the hours of polling led to considerable confusion and in some cases confrontation at the place of poll. This sadly disrupted what had until then been a peaceful election day.... In three areas Victoria on the East Coast and in East and West Ruimveldt, observers withdrew following threats received from hostile crowds. These events are most regrettable but have not prevented our teams from returning to monitor the tabulation of results."

The report also noted "the disappointing delay in the release of preliminary results" and that " this has led to speculation among stakeholders... We continue to monitor the counting process."

In the study of preparations for election day the two missions made a number of observations including "the clear administrative failures" in the voter registration process including "poor production line management during the processing of information from Master Registration Cards through to the collation of the ID cards into the appropriate canisters for distribution." The report described the GECOM systems as "overly bureaucratic and prone to administrative failures... There is, we believe, a clear need to review the process of voter registration and to place it on a permanent basis."

Vincent de Visscher, head of the European Delegation in Guyana said in a comment after the press conference that the European Union would look at assistance for a house-to-house registration exercise and the establishment of a database which could be updated regularly.

The report continued that the OLE and its addendum did not seem to have addressed all of the 23,000 errors on the revised voters list.

Asked whether the missions believed there was any fraud involved in the mistakes on the list Osborn said the mission had not seen any evidence of fraud as yet. The report asked "that to allay concerns over these shortcomings we would urge GECOM to undertake a thorough external audit of the computer software and systems and in the interests of transparency publish any consequential report."

As regards the campaigning by the parties - also part of the observers' mandate, the statement noted that the campaign was on the whole, free from violence with a few notable exceptions and all parties were to be congratulated in ensuring that the atmosphere was largely free from intimidation. But "it is also a concern that speakers at some meetings played on the divisions in society and sought to bring out some fears and prejudices of parts of the population." It is recommended that the National Assembly provide for an agreed and enforceable code of conduct for parties during the election campaign and that the Ethnic Relations Commission and tribunal be appointed to prohibit the use of language that could incite racial violence or hatred.

The report made a preliminary conclusion that "the difficulties in the election process are attributable to a wide range of factors, some of which are technical indicating a lack of adequate preparation and human error and others structural due to the polarisation of politics in Guyana. Notwithstanding these factors the elections have broadly met the international benchmarks."

The long-term observers of both missions will remain in the country until the duly elected president is sworn in.

Monday's voting mainly satisfactory - OAS mission

The Organisation of American States (OAS) observer mission says Monday's general election was in the main a satisfactory process and the shortcomings experienced should not detract from this.

In a statement last night, the OAS Electoral Observation Mission (OAS-EOM) to Guyana said "the elections of 19 March 2001 were orderly, peaceful and largely incident-free thereby creating conditions for the free expression of the will of the people". It added that the shortcomings experienced, however, point to areas of procedural and systemic weaknesses that need to be tackled.

Fielding 33 observers in all 10 polling districts, the OAS team said the most serious problem encountered during voting derived from the errors and omissions in the Official List of Electors (OLE) and its Addendum. The OAS team pointed out that anxieties had been voiced by all parties during the run-up to elections. "In this regard, the remedial efforts of the Elections Commission would appear to have fallen short of expectations", the statement said.

The mission pointed out that the commission had made it clear before March 19 that only those persons who were on the OLE would be permitted to vote. As a result, a number of persons seeking to exercise their franchise - some with recently issued identity cards and some with stubs indicating that they had been photographed during the registration process - were unable to vote as their names were not on the voters list. "The number of persons affected varied from polling station to polling station and from region to region. The OAS-EOM was unable to quantify the extent of this problem", the statement added.

It pointed out that the closing of polls at 6 pm was affected by the announcement at that hour by the commission that they should remain open. This was followed swiftly by a reversal of the decision. "Confusion and inconsistencies ensued. In certain districts, persons rushed to polling stations in the hope of casting their ballots causing surges of tension. The closing time of polling stations varied and in Georgetown some remained open as late as 9 pm".

While extraordinarily detailed and time consuming, the OAS-EOM says the required procedures for the counting process were "scrupulously followed" in the stations checked by the mission.

"In a highly pressurised and polarised atmosphere where time was of the essence, Guyana's election officials exerted themselves mightily to fulfil their tasks and rise up to the high expectations placed on them", the team declared. It added, however, that several significant changes in election policy were made very late in the process including the very late designation of polling stations. "Efforts made to accommodate concerns relating to the transparency and integrity of the process did not always achieve the desired objective, as was the case with the transmission of preliminary results, which was slow and not always informative", the OAS-EOM stated.

It said that the early hours of polling day was "blemished" by a number of logistical and administrative glitches which included unfamiliarity with the process and missing voter paraphernalia. Other more serious faults such as late delivery of voting materials and the shortage of polling station staff delayed the opening of stations in some places. "These deficiencies were substantially corrected by mid-morning and along with a decrease in the rate of turnout and the growing confidence of polling station officials as their mastery of the voting processes improved, led to a smoother flow of voters for the remainder of the day".

The mission commended the electorate for voting in an orderly and peaceful manner and for turning out in large numbers. This, it said, was facilitated by the commitment and patience of polling station officials.

The OAS-EOM was one of five overseas missions scrutinising the March 19 polls.

EAB's tally shows PPP/C in the lead with 193,546 votes counted

The Electoral Assistance Bureau's (EAB) compilation of 193,546 votes from 44% of the ballot boxes used in Monday's general elections shows the PPP/Civic leading with 54.9%.

The PNC REFORM secured 40.4% of the votes tallied, followed by the Guyana Action Party/Working People's Alliance score of 1.7% and the Rise, Organise and Rebuild Guyana movement (ROAR) at one per cent.

The Justice for All Party came in next with 0.67% of the votes, followed by The United Force 0.6%. The Guyana Democratic Party secured 0.38% of those votes and the National Front Alliance 0.1%.

The count by the EAB covered all ten regions with 15 boxes from Region One, 67 from Region Two, 142 from Region Three, 258 from Region Four, 82 from Region Five, 164 from Region Six, 21 from Region Seven, 14 from Region Eight, 21 from Region Nine and 51 from Region Ten.

Disenfranchised citizen wants explanation from GECOM