According to the general secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Bharrat Jagdeo today’s hearing at the Court of Appeal is the last episode in the APNU+AFC Coalition’s quest to disenfranchise Guyanese voters.
“We knew this drama would have many episodes…this is the last element…they are hoping to get a ruling to disenfranchise the people who voted and change what everyone knows now is the result”, he said during a video statement yesterday.
At the time, Jagdeo was referring to an application filed yesterday to prevent the Chief Election Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield from submitting a report to enable a final declaration from the March 2 polls.
According to the submission which is to be heard today at 1:30 pm the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) deviated from the order that guided the national vote recount and failed to determine “final credible” results.
While the recount has shown a victory for the PPP/C, the APNU+AFC Coalition has continued to argue that the Elections were tainted by fraud. De facto President David Granger has specifically called for the removal from the final tally of “rogue votes.”
In line with this narrative Lowenfield had previously presented an alternative count for each District.
Across all ten districts the CEO suggested that only 185,260 votes cast can be considered valid. The verified figure from the National Recount is 460,295 votes. Of the number of votes deemed valid, the majority was cast in favour of the incumbent as the alternative count grants the coalition 125,010 votes and the PPP/C 56,628.
Chairperson of GECOM, Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh, however argued that the Commission does not have the power to adjudicate the incumbent claims and directed Lowenfield to submit a report using the result of the recount.
She explained that the questions of electoral fraud and credibility of the elections should be settled by the High Court in keeping with Article 163 of the Constitution.
Lowenfield, in apparent defiance of this directive did not submit a report yesterday. Additionally two government-nominated commissioners absented themselves from the meeting which was then adjourned for lack of a quorum.
According to Jagdeo, the Commissioners’ absence, Lowenfield’s failure to submit the report and the Court filing were all part of a well-coordinated action.
“This seems to be the plot by APNU, they will not give up… this is a disguised elections petition. You can’t disguise anything and put it before the Court of Appeal and rule on technicality. The Court of Appeal we believe has no jurisdiction and we hope the matter will be thrown out in the interest of moving forward,” he stressed.
