Caretaker President David Granger yesterday maintained that there was “massive” fraud in the March 2nd elections while stating that the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) ruling on the elections case is not what his party wants to hear.
Granger was at the time addressing supporters of the APNU+AFC coalition, who had gathered outside of State House yesterday afternoon shortly after the decision was delivered.
Despite the COVID-19 measures in place, approximately sixty persons, dressed in the party colours took up position outside of the State House yesterday afternoon calling for Granger to be sworn in as President.
Shortly after this, Granger was seen exiting the gate to engage the gathering. Surrounded by a number of presidential guards and police officers, Granger, who was not wearing a mask but had what appeared to be one in his left hand stood in close proximity to the crowd to deliver his address.
There was a loud uproar before he spoke. Support-ers could have been heard urging others to lower their voice in an effort for them to hear what Granger had to say.
Some were heard shouting “we love you”. One man said, “talk wah we want hear. Nah wah you want seh”.
Granger spent a little under four minutes engaging the gathering before he returned into State House.
The police were later seen dispersing the gathering.
In his address which was videoed and circulated on social media site, Granger said that the judgment by the court, does not conclude the matter. He said it is the Guyana Elections Commission who have to make a final decision.
“You have heard the news. Is that what we wanted to hear? No, but our party, our party, our partnership and our coalition are committed to the rule of law. The CCJ has not allowed the position that our Court of Appeal has taken but it means that the matter will now have to go back to the Elections Commission. So the matter is not closed, it now has to go back to the Elections Commission,” Granger said.
Granger added that while his party cannot do anything about the ruling, the court did not make any coercive orders.
“As of today, 3 o’clock, the Caribbean Court of Justice has made a ruling and we cannot do anything about the ruling but they have made no coercive orders. That means they have not given any instructions to what GECOM is empowered under the laws of Guyana to do. So we will have to assess the situation in which we are in now. The matter will go back to the Election Commission but as far as we are concerned we have evidence that there has been massive fraud and irregularities and we will continue the fight to make sure that your votes are counted,” he explained.
The occurrence, he said is the first of such in the history of the country and is because of “some bad elements” who attempted to “manipulate” the votes.
“It is the first time this has happened in the history of our country and it has happened because there are some bad elements out there who tried to manipulate the vote by having votes recorded for dead people (and) people who had migrated, more votes in a polling station than they had electors. We know all of the faults and our party, our partnership and our coalition has been bringing these complaints of abuses and irregularities to the attention of the public and also to the attention of the court,” he further stated.
Granger and his coalition have made the allegations without providing any evidence. The CCJ made the point yesterday that such matters are for the consideration of the High Court in an election petition.
Granger admitted that the process has been a long one but urged supporters to remain patient until the end.
“So we still have to be patient. I know. I know it has been a long wait. We all went out on the 2nd of March. March passed, April passed, May passed, June passed and now we’re in July,” he said.
The CCJ yesterday ruled on an appeal related to the March 2nd elections brought by PPP General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo and PPP/C presidential candidate Irfaan Ali.
Jagdeo and Ali appealed a Guyana Court of Appeal (CoA) decision which sought to embrace the word “valid” in provisions of the constitution addressing the election of a President.
In its judgment yesterday, Justice Adrian Saunders, who headed the CCJ panel ruled that it had jurisdiction to hear an appeal of a decision by the Guyana Court of Appeal pertaining to the March 2nd general elections.
Lawyers for the government in the case of Irfaan Ali et al v Eslyn David had argued vigorously last Wednesday that the CCJ had no jurisdiction to hear the matter as Article 177(4) of the Constitution conferred exclusive jurisdiction on the Guyana Court of Appeal to hear such matters.
Lawyers for Ali and others had argued that the CCJ did have jurisdiction in the matter and that the Court of Appeal had exceeded its authority by inserting the word valid into how constitutional provisions are read in relation to votes for the election of a President.
