More than a month after the March 2nd general elections, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has promised that a decision will be made today on the way forward in the protracted process which has triggered political gridlock.
“Consequent to the decision of the Full Court, [GECOM] met… to discuss the way forward to conclude the electoral process [however] the meeting was adjourned and will reconvene… at 10:00hrs where a decision is expected,” GECOM public relations officer (PRO), Yolanda Ward said in a statement.
The main issue discussed yesterday was the recount of votes cast in electoral district four which Chairperson Claudette Singh has promised to facilitate. The count for that district was declared by international observers to not be credible and not enabling of the swearing in of a new President.
No decision has been made but the Chief Election Officer (CEO) has, according to government-nominated commissioner Vincent Alexander, been asked to address his mind to the process to be undertaken to facilitate a recount.
Alexander explained that he had tabled a motion yesterday for the Commission to consider the report on the results of the Elections compiled by CEO, Keith Lowenfield. That report had been seriously discredited by international observers over the apparently fictitious numbers introduced by District Four Return-ing Officer, Clairmont Mingo. The consideration of a report from the CEO is a constitutional requirement before the declaration by GECOM of the results of any elections.
According to opposition-nominated commissioner Sase Gunraj, this motion was defeated via a majority vote of four to three. The GECOM PRO however contends that it was never taken to a vote. In a statement released yesterday she stressed that Justice Singh explained that she would be unable to allow the CEO to present his report since a contempt motion brought by the People’s Progressive Party restrains her from so doing.
Singh is said to have stressed that in relation to this matter, she had given an undertaking to the Court of Chief Justice Roxane George to facilitate a recount at the level of the Commission.
While Opposition-nominated Commissioner Robeson Benn had tabled a motion for a recount he eventually withdrew this motion yesterday on the grounds that the Commission had already agreed to a recount supervised by CARICOM.
The statement released by GECOM yesterday explained that Benn and the other two opposition-nominated commissioners argued that there is nothing that prevents the Commis-sion from moving forward with this recount since the Court has discharged the injunctions.
GECOM on March 15 had agreed to have a recount of all votes cast in the March 2 General and Regional Elections under the supervision of a high-level team from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
This process was halted after Justice Franklyn Holder granted APNU+AFC candidate Ulita Moore injunctions stopping a recount and preventing GECOM from altering the declaration made by the Region 4 Returning Officer Mingo.
The injunctions were granted just as the commission was contemplating a legal opinion from the Chief Parliamentary Counsel who had advised that the Commission could not gazette an Order legitimizing the recount.
The opinion claimed that since the agreement for a recount
originated outside of the Commission it was unconstitutional and could not be implemented. Singh has since argued in her submission to Justice Holder that the decision to recount and the process of a recount was always a GECOM process with CARICOM being merely the means by which a GECOM process would be realized.
Justice Holder’s decision was overturned by the Full Court on Tuesday, paving the way for the recount to begin.
Notably while Government-nominated Commissioner Alexander indicated to reporters yesterday that he would support a “continuation of the (recount) process started by CARICOM” the statement from Ward says that the government-nominated Commissioners have argued that the Commission still needs directions on the way forward.
“Government Commis-sioners contended that though the Court has discharged all the injunctions, it would be necessary for there to be some legal guidance for the Commission to conduct a recount since the Court has refrained from issuing any directions on the way forward,” it stated.
Observers and Singh herself have pointed out that GECOM is accoutred with all of the powers necessary to make decisions on matters such as a recount.
The GECOM statement also said that the meeting was adjourned to allow government-nominated commissioner Charles Corbin to seek legal guidance on the matter of the recount as previously decided by the commission.
Alexander also noted that he had tabled a request to wait until various ongoing court matters were settled before a decision was made on the way forward. This proposal he said was discharged in the negative with a vote of four to three.
The Guyana Court of Appeal is to this morning hear an application by APNU+AFC candidate Moore challenging the Full Court’s decision to throw out Justice Holder’s injunction against a recount.
