FORMER military leader David Granger was controversially sworn in as president of Guyana on Saturday as further allegations of vote-rigging emerged.

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) alleged numerous abuses in Monday’s presidential and parliamentary ­elections, including false statements of polls (SOPs) from voting districts and intimidation of PPP observers.

However, the British, Canadian and US governments supported Mr Granger’s claim to the presidency and the Guyana Electoral Commission (Gecom) insisted that the elections were free and fair.

Gecom declared A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) candidate Mr Granger the winner on Saturday with 207,200 votes, against 202,674 for PPP incumbent Donald Ramotar — a margin of some 4,500 votes.

APNU was also declared the parliamentary winner with a majority of just one seat in Guyana’s 65-seat legislature, with the PPP winning the other 32 seats.

But PPP parliamentary list member Dr Peter Ramsaroop said that his party had unearthed evidence of massive electoral fraud.

“Fair and free is more than crossing the ‘t’ and dotting the ‘i’,” he said in a statement.

“Two hundred thousand people now feel disfranchised from the system.

“I support the party’s call for a full recount and encourage other supporters of the PPP to come out in numbers and demand fairness. It is time we take [to] the streets. We should not be bullied by anyone.”

Before last week’s elections the PPP had been in power since 1992.