In the days ahead, GECOM Chair, Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh’s integrity and commitment to free and fair elections will be under granular scrutiny. Whether the country is classified as a democratic state or one that has been overrun by rigged elections is primarily in her hands as she holds the decisive vote on the seven-member Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
Thus far, the public and the political parties which contested the March 2nd general elections have good grounds to doubt whether Justice Singh is indeed committed to free and fair elections; her failure to halt two fictitious declarations by the Returning Officer for Region Four, Clairmont Mingo being among the prime exhibits.
In between those two diabolical declarations she gave a solemn commitment to the court of Chief Justice George that if Mr Mingo’s declaration did not comply with the Representation of the People Act then a recount of the votes would be done. That commitment pertained specifically to District Four but since then there have been discussions at various levels that have enlarged the recount to comprise all of the districts of the country. Justice Singh appears not to be seized by the reality that there is an ongoing, fiendish plot to contaminate and overturn the democratic will of the people and she must be alert to this and take decisive action to defeat the plotters. Her decision-making has been languorous, haphazard and torturous. Her decision on Friday is a prime example of this. After days of fruitless talks over the number of work stations required, the Chair announced that there would be “no more” than 10 – imprecise language for no good reason – and sans any useful discussion on when the process would begin, over how many hours per day the counting would take place, a deadline for the recount and the arrangements for observers who would oversee the process. This despite the fact that due to her weak oversight of the electoral process, the elections results are seven weeks overdue and the country faces a serious threat from the COVID-19 pandemic.
She did, however, disclose on Friday that she had written to de facto Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo in his capacity as Chairman of the National Coronavirus Task Force “with some specific requests”. As it now transpires, the answers to these requests were transmitted, according to Mr Nagamootoo, on Saturday and that day passed without the Chair making any announcement.
Based on Mr Nagamootoo’s column yesterday in the state-owed Guyana Chronicle, Ms Singh sought guidance in relation to the:
(a) time at which the daily recount exercise should end;
(b) number of persons who should be safely accommodated at the recount venue at the same time; and
(c) required protocols for quarantining persons coming from abroad, and who were invited to be part of the recount process.
Mr Nagamootoo’s response based on the advice of the task force, was as follows:-
1. That GECOM adjusts its desired 10-hour work schedule within the daily 6am to 5pm (06:00hr to 17:00hrs) time-frame, and does not extend it into the curfew period (18:00hrs to 06:00hrs).
2. That all persons who are permitted special entry into Guyana during this period when our air space is closed to in-bound passengers, must submit themselves to being quarantined at a government institution for a period of 14 days.
3. That GECOM allows four technical experts of the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre (PHEOC) to conduct a site visit to assess whether distancing arrangements conform to the pandemic guidelines and the published Order.
Mr Nagamootoo’s response to the Chair clearly has less to do with public health concerns and more to do with extending the life of what remains of this discredited administration. Why for instance are four “technical experts” required to inspect the centre for distancing arrangements? Is it one for each cardinal point?
Given GECOM’s potent and expansive constitutional mandate to supervise elections, what the GECOM Chair should have done was to advise Mr Nagamootoo that GECOM was desirous of concluding this recount process as quickly as possible given the intolerable delay and wanted to do counting 24/7 and that the necessary arrangement should be put in place for this. The Chair’s diffidence about her authority has now given Mr Nagamootoo the means to further devalue the process and he has delivered.
Instead of being a supplicant, the Chair should have advised Mr Nagamootoo that observers coming to observe the process would either have been tested for COVID-19 in their home countries or on their arrival here. The quarantine period set by Mr Nagamootoo is clearly unwarranted but is no doubt geared to provide further opportunity to undermine the electoral process. Now that she has gotten her reply, the Chair must today convene a meeting of her commissioners and decide what must be done to arrive at the quickest means of verifying the final result. The easiest pathway of course is to resume tabulating District Four where it had been cunningly halted by Mr Mingo and to complete it. This would provide the basis for proceeding to a conclusion considering that the other nine districts had already been counted. What will Justice Singh do?
What she must not do under any circumstance is enable the malign activities of those at GECOM who do not have clean hands in the elections process. By virtue of agreeing to undertake the recount of District Four, Justice Singh has accepted that Mr Mingo’s recount did not comply with the Representation of the People Act even though he had been suitably admonished by the CJ’s court to ensure this. Given that Mr Mingo did not comply with the court’s order and given the overwhelming local and international opprobrium over how he conducted himself, Mr Mingo must not be part of any recount. By the same token, since the Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield presented Mr Mingo’s figure for final approval by GECOM, he, too, cannot be considered to be above board and given his statutory functions he presents a real risk to a fair result being declared. The same goes for his Deputy, Roxanne Myers.
The call is now Ms Singh’s. She is no doubt sufficiently aware that nowhere in the world is it acceptable for election results to be delayed for seven weeks and now for a longer period to cater for a recount. Justice Singh is also acutely aware of the history of elections rigging in this country from 1968 to 1985 under PNC governments. Theft of elections is therefore not some esoteric concoction. It is real. It has happened before. It is now again staring starkly at her and the country. She must decide if she stands for free and fair elections or is prepared to let the riggers have their way.
