In the quicksand of the twin viruses of COVID-19 and the most naked elections fraud, it is important to recap why five weeks after general elections a President is yet to be sworn in.
After the realisation that the District Four results showed that APNU+AFC had lost the March 2nd general election, the most sordid plot was put in place, undoubtedly hatched by persons on behalf of APNU+AFC and key members of the elections secretariat. It explained fully why after processing around half of the Statements of Poll (SoPs) for District Four there was a sudden departure in the established method by the Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo.
A spreadsheet was engineered but the numbers called out for the various parties did not match. In at least one instance, the numbers called exceeded the known numbers of voters at that polling station. There were vehement objections to this tainted process from all of the parties – unsurprisingly with the singular exception of APNU+AFC – but Mr Mingo persevered.
Contrary to assurances that had earlier been given that all SoPs would be utilised, Mr Mingo on March 5th proceeded to incredibly declare the results for District Four. Throughout the uproar prior to the Mingo declaration and during the declaration, the GECOM Chair, Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh did not lift a finger to stop the Mingo process and uphold the integrity of the electoral process despite her magisterial powers to intervene. She remained in a room in the said building of the District Four office only to emerge much later.
After the filing of legal proceedings, the Chief Justice ruled that Mr Mingo’s declaration was unlawful and had to comply with a process that utilised the SoPs. Undeterred, Mr Mingo ploughed ahead with the second declaration of Region Four results on March 14th that was similarly perverse and ultra vires the law. Yet again there was no intervention by the GECOM Chair. In the meanwhile, following contempt of court proceedings against Mr Mingo, the GECOM Chair gave a commitment in the court of the Chief Justice for a recount of Region Four and this is what she will now be held to.
The ruling of the Court of Appeal yesterday in the case filed by Ulita Moore has again made pellucid the plenitude of the powers available to GECOM in matters such as a recount. There is no time to be lost in bringing this crisis to a close considering that five weeks have been frittered away in establishing a stable government and the country is grappling with the deadly COVID-19 pandemic and needs a fully functional centre together with a new Parliament.
The GECOM Chair should today summon an urgent meeting and set in place arrangements for a full supervision of the recount of District Four. It is District Four which corrupt GECOM staff and agents of APNU+AFC have sought to prevent the public from learning the truth about. There is no need to tiptoe around this. District Four must be recounted immediately and the result made known to the public so that the country can move ahead with a fully empowered government which can deploy the panoply of available measures to address COVID-19.
If there is some good reason for revisiting the count for any of the other districts, GECOM can in its own right make such decisions. However, enough time has been lost in pandering to those who have attempted to steal the elections from the people.
Neither Mr Mingo nor Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield should have any part in this recount process as they have been compromised by the report that was issued by the latter to the GECOM Chair for the certification of the final result. The international observers inclusive of CARICOM, the Commonwealth, the OAS and the Carter Center must be invited to scrutinise the process. They would have to be flown in by special flights and given the valid concerns about COVID-19 they would have to be isolated and then tested for the virus before being allowed to participate in the process. The local observers from Transparency Institute Guyana Inc, the Guyana Bar Association, the Private Sector and others which did yeoman’s work, in addition to agents of the political parties, must also be in attendance.
Justice Singh must apprehend the dire need for a conclusion to the election. There is no room for more time wasting in interpreting or reading decisions that are clear in meaning and intent.
