Although up to press time the results of Monday’s Guyana election have not been formally announced, it looks like the incumbent People’s Progressive Party – Civic (PPP-C) has won its fifth consecutive victory.

The Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) has come under fire for delaying the release of the official results, with outgoing President Bharrat Jagdeo – who is still constitutionally in charge until a new President is sworn in – leading the charge against the Commission.

In a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, monitored in Toronto at The Camera’s office, Jagdeo hit Gecom for not releasing the preliminary results, which he said, shows who the winner of the November 28 poll is.

Jagdeo said that all of the parties that contested the election had the results, given to them via signed statements of poll, but were forbidden by Gecom from declaring them. This, plus the delay in releasing the preliminary results, he said, had created an air of uncertainty in the country, which some political parties was using to mobilize people onto the streets.

Warning people against any acts of violence, Jagdeo said he was in charge and had communicated with security officials to meet any acts of violence with the appropriate response. He also threatened to appeal to the international community, including the United Nations, to prosecute anyone found to be inciting acts of violence at this time.

On Wednesday evening, text messages were being sent to Guyanese, mainly supporters of the opposition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), an alliance made up of the People’s National Congress and several smaller parties, to take to the streets to protest what it called irregularities in the poll and the delay in the results.

This has been the traditional response by the PNC to elections in Guyana, which has led to widespread violence and looting in the past.

“APNU is not confident that any declaration by Gecom at this stage about the presidency of Guyana can have a legitimate basis,” the party said in claiming that Jagdeo and the PPP were in some sort of collaboration with Gecom chairman Dr Steve Surujbally to fix the results.

The APNU claim comes on the heels of the PPP’s demand for a recount in some regions, which the opposition said pointed to a “fix” being in. The PPP has since officially withdrawn any demand for a recount.

What led to this confusion was the release by Gecom of early figures showing the APNU with 47,155 votes to the PPP’s 42,646 out of 100,695 ballots counted. However, these results did not include the PPP stronghold of Region 6, which is the Berbice area.

Gecom has promised that the official results will be released either late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning. The Camera went to press Wednesday night without any official word from Guyana.