Excerpts from report by the Caribbean news agency Cana

Georgetown, Guyana, 1st January: Leader of the main opposition People's National Congress (PNC), Desmond Hoyte, has said that his party does not accept the official results of the 15th December election, which were announced Tuesday night [30th December].

Desmond Hoyte: "The PNC can see no alternative to the holding of fresh elections"

Hoyte also told reporters on Wednesday his party will "pursue the path of a legal petition" against the declared figures.

But the PNC claims that since it envisages that steps are likely to be taken to delay that process, the only alternative is fresh elections.

"It is clear to us, however, that there exists the possibility that advantage will be taken of the processes of law to delay the resolution of such a petition, and in the interests of this country we must find means to achieve a speedy resolution of the issues," Hoyte told reporters on Wednesday.

"The PNC can see no alternative to the holding of fresh elections, especially in the context of the irregularities surrounding the statements of poll (even where the originals can be found), the counting and the integrity of the ballot boxes which effectively excludes resolution via a simple recount of what is currently in the boxes," he added...

Asked about the cost of new elections, Hoyte said: "Cost is unimportant - the issue is too great. What is at stake here is the future of this country and you cannot measure that in terms of cost of an election. The cost of an election is minimal compared with the future, development and stability."

Regarding the 22 seats the PNC has been allocated, Hoyte said that issue was being discussed by the party's leadership. "What we will do in terms of the parliament is something we are discussing as part of a wider strategy. Our leadership is dealing with those issues right now," the PNC presidential candidate said...

According to him, the results released by the elections commission chairman did not accurately represent the will of the people and the way people voted.

"On that basis this government is an illegitimate government. We have a purported president who has no legitimacy as far as the PNC and a large number of people in Guyana are concerned. We do not accept her [Janet Jagan's] authority or her legitimacy," Hoyte asserted.

'The inaccuracies and errors have been persistent and cumulative. They should not be treated as individual, inconsequential variations capable of being explained away by reference to unavoidable human error. Instead they should be seen for what they really are - mistakes and internal inconsistencies flowing from an unacceptable mix of incompetence, procedural and other illegalities, and deceit in the implementation of the overall electoral process," Hoyte contended.

"How can 101 per cent of persons with voter identification cards voted? How could over 200 documents necessary to validate the count disappear? How could numbers on tally sheets and statements of poll vary so significantly in the records of the commission? How could the commission claim to have gone out to reconstruct the statements of polls from people's memory and don't tell the opposition parties that - but pretend to be reading from official documents until they were discovered?" Hoyte queried.

"I do believe the PPP [People's Progressive Party] is going to have great difficulty in justifying these numbers which were announced Tuesday night as being the final count of votes in the 15th December elections," he said.

Source: Cana news agency, Bridgetown, in English 1934 gmt 1 Jan 98

Government agrees to audit of election results by international body

Excerpts from report by the Caribbean news agency Cana

Georgetown, Guyana, 1st January: The Guyana government has accepted a proposal by the local private sector for an international audit of the votes cast at the December general elections, President Janet Jagan announced in her New Year's message.

President Janet Jagan

"We agree with this proposal and accept as well an offer from the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), which observed the elections under the leadership of former American ambassador (to Guyana) Mr George Fleming Jones, to assist with the audit," she told Guyanese in a nationwide broadcast at midnight on Wednesday [31st December].

Jagan explained that her administration has decided to support the audit to ensure that, "all allegations however minor, must therefore be put to rest once and for all". She pledged her People's Progressive Party/Civic's "every cooperation"' to the Guyana Elections Commission and the auditors.

But Joycleyn Dow, elections commissioner for the United Force and Alliance for Guyana, said she would only support an audit done by the UN.

Main opposition People's National Congress (PNC) Elections Commissioner Dr Barton Scotland questioned the relevance of an audit to verify the results of the poll. "My personal view has been all along that an audit would not be a helpful thing. What it will do is serve to simply say, is what is - is [sentence as received]. It will not conduct a searching inquiry into every nook and cranny, into every corner, it will not ask the whys and seek to find the answers because an audit doesn't do that," he told reporters.

Private sector leaders recommended the audit to reach a consensus on the outcome of the 15th December poll and ease rising political tensions. But the PNC has rejected the audit on the grounds that the final results have already been certified and declared...

Preparations for the audit began on Wednesday with the storage of all ballot boxes in five metal shipping containers in the compound of the National Registration Centre.

Source: Cana news agency, Bridgetown, in English 1919 gmt 1 Jan 98

Final results of 15th December parliamentary elections declared

Text of report by the Caribbean news agency Cana

Georgetown, Guyana, 31st December: After more than two weeks of bickering, final results of the 15th December general elections have been declared showing the People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/Civic) commanding a seven-seat majority in the National Assembly over its nearest rival.

Commission Chairman Doodnauth Singh announced to the press Tuesday [30th December] evening that the PPP/Civic had won 220,667 votes, giving it 29 of the 53 national seats, while the People's National Congress (PNC) mustered 22 seats with 161,901 votes.

But Singh's announcement was still affected by controversy as Joycelyn Dow, commissioner for two of the contesting parties told journalists: "I voted against the approval of the poll count compiled by the chief elections officer for the simple fact that not only were procedures after the close of poll lacking in consistency and often legality, but also because even the chief elections officer had constantly to be altering his numbers without convincing explanation, his latest revision being made a few hours ago."

The political veteran, representing the Alliance for Guyana and the United Force, related that at Tuesday's meeting of the Elections Commission she urged that the declaration of results should be made "only after a full national and/or international audit of all the systems".

"Despite my best efforts unanimity could not be achieved," Doodnauth Singh conceded. PNC Commissioners Malcolm Parris and Dr Barton Scotland stayed away from the announcement.

The PPP/Civic's overall parliamentary representation would increase to at least 34 seats because it has won five additional seats in regional elections.

Guyana parliament comprises the 53-seat national assembly and 12 regional seats. Ten of those regional seats represent the country's administrative demarcations and are voted for at the time of national elections, while the remaining two are elected in a caucus of the regional representatives. PNC's tally goes to 26 with the addition of four regional seats.

The United Force with 6,131 votes and Alliance for Guyana with 4,717 have each won one seat in the National Assembly, leaving the remaining six contesting parties out in the cold. The Guyana Democratic party led by Asgar Ally, Guyana's former finance minister and ex-Jamaica deputy Central Bank governor, clinched one regional seat.

Source: Cana news agency, Bridgetown, in English 1752 gmt 31 Dec 97

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