The High Court yesterday held another Saturday sitting to hear an application by the opposition PPP/C for an injunction to restrain the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) from declaring the final results of the March 2 polls until a recount is done in Region Four in accordance with the law.
The matter was, however, adjourned until Monday after the respondent, GECOM, indicated that it was not aware of a material submission made by the applicant.
According to attorney and executive member of the People’s Progressive Party Anil Nandlall, on Friday evening he requested that the Registrar of the High Court facilitate a sitting of the High Court and this request was granted. He said because the High Court building in Georgetown was fumigated yesterday with certain toxic chemicals, the sitting of the High Court took place at Diamond/ Grove Magistrate’s Court, on the East Bank of Demerara.
Nandlall explained that at the hearing, at which the media was not present, the Chairperson of GECOM, the three government-nominated elections commissioners and two opposition-nominated commissioners were present with attorneys-at-law Neil Boston, S.C., and Robin Hunte.
The hearing for which no affidavits have been made public continued until the litigants were alerted to a statement issued by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who is the current Chairperson of CARICOM.
This statement shared from Mottley’s Facebook page indicated that CARICOM, with the agreement of President David Granger and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, would be fielding a high level team to supervise a recount.
It was later clarified that this recount would extend to all 10 electoral districts.
According to Nandlall, he shared the statement with the court following which Boston, the three government-nominated commissioners and the Chairperson of GECOM stated they were unaware of its existence.
Boston, who represented GECOM, told reporters outside the court that the matter was put down to allow GECOM to decide on the matter of recount.
Nandlall, however, stressed that the next meeting of the commission was to “facilitate a recount” and decide and modalities.
Private charges
Meanwhile, on Friday PPP/C party agent Charles Ramson Jr filed private criminal charges against the Region Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo and APNU+AFC agent Volda Lawrence.
The filing, which was seen by Stabroek News, accuses Mingo and Lawrence of uttering a forged document with intent to defraud the public contrary to Section 278 of the Criminal Law (Offences) Act.
The section specifies that everyone who …utters knowing it to be forged or altered, any document whatsoever, with intent to defraud the public…shall be guilty of felony and liable to imprisonment for three years.
According to the alleged particulars of the offence, “the accused Clairmont Mingo having been procured by the accused Volda Lawrence on or about March 5, 2020 at Hadfield Street, uttered to the Chief Elections Officer a Form 24 Representation of the People’s Act dated March 5 knowing it to be forged, with intent to defraud the people of the state of Guyana.”
The two persons identified in the complaint appear as signatories on a declaration which once tallied with the results released for the nine other voting districts point to a large enough victory for the incumbent APNU+AFC to retain the presidency and a parliamentary majority.
The opposition PPP/C, however, has said its count from SOPs in its possession shows otherwise, while international and local observers have deemed the count “not credible”.
In a ruling issued last Wednesday, the Chief Justice found the purported declaration of results in the region null, void and of no effect. The Chief Justice also made it clear that there therefore could be no declaration of any final results of the elections, until the declaration of the vote count for electoral district four is properly done.
A second declaration which differs from that published on March 5 was made public on Friday.
The votes cast for each party has changed at both the regional and general elections.
At the regional level, APNU+AFC has recorded 6,046 votes less and at the general level two less. The PPP/C has recorded 2,381 less at the regional level and 98 less at the general level. Each of the other parties have seen their votes either increase or decrease, with the largest increase, 18 votes, recorded by the People’s Republic Party at the regional elections.
According to Friday’s declaration the APNU+AFC had won Region Four with 136,057 votes, compared to 77,231 for the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), a margin of 58,826. This margin is large enough to close the nearly 52,000 vote gap the PPP/C had recorded after the completed count of the other nine regions.
