Concerns of flaws in Guyana election

GEORGETOWN, Guyana — The election commission in this oil-rich nation has declared that the governing coalition won the country’s disputed vote, despite international concerns about the credibility of the process.

The commission said late Friday that it will move this weekend to verify vote totals in the March 2 general election, as international observer groups said the tallying was flawed and not transparent.

Barring any successful court challenges, the governing coalition led by retired army Gen. David Granger, 74, would begin a second five-year term in office. Coalition officials said they plan to swear in Granger on Monday.

Joseph Harmon, a campaign manager of the governing coalition, appealed for calm and said the government hopes that the “country can return to normal.”

However, the main opposition People’s Progressive Party, or PPP, led by former housing minister Irfaan Ali, along with some observer groups have complained about their inability to verify numbers provided by election officials.

An observer team from the Washington-based Organization of American States, headed by former Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding, withdrew from the monitoring process Friday and said its final report in the coming weeks will reflect dissatisfaction with the system. It earlier called for an abandonment of the manual vote-tallying system.

The final tallying process was held up by disputes over results for a district including the capital of Georgetown and nearby areas. Whichever political group wins this key district by at least 40,000 votes is usually the winner of the national election. The results released overnight Friday gave the governing coalition 136,057 votes in the district and 77,231 to the PPP.