Plans for a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the five-month period after the March 2, 2020 polls remain on the table, according to President Irfaan Ali, who says he is in constant dialogue with the international community on the issue.
Ali made the disclosure after being asked by Stabroek News on Monday whether a team has been identified to conduct the inquiry.
“As you are aware, there are many issues ongoing simultaneously in relations to the elections commission and so that team has not been named. I have been engaging various international stakeholders,” Ali said on the sidelines of the swearing in ceremony for regional Chairmen and Vice Chairmen.
The president explained that the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to the delay in the formation of the team to lead the elections review.
Asked if a timeline has been established for the naming of the team, Ali said, “I will like it to happen very quickly. As you would [know] the COVID-19 pandemic has [placed] some restrictions on the international organisations and so on but I am in constant dialogue with them, they understand the urgency, also, and hopefully we can get it off the ground quickly…,” he added.
Ali was declared as Guyana’s 9th President five months after the nation voted.
While delivering his speech during his inauguration at the National Cultural Centre in August, Ali had announced that his government would be launching an independent review of the events that unfolded after the close of polls to the declaration of the results.
“A review of events related to the electoral process over the last five months will begin shortly in order to determine, forensically, exactly what transpired, and to hold accountable any persons who sought to pervert and corrupt the system,” Ali said.
Region Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo was accused on March 5th of presenting fictitious figures on a spreadsheet and five major observer groups had found his tabulation not to be credible, including the CARICOM observer mission.
On May 6th, GECOM began a recount exercise that showed that the PPP/C had won the majority of votes. However, the credibility of the results determined by the recount have been challenged by APNU+AFC, which has claimed that alleged irregularities that were uncovered compromised the polls. Lowenfield is currently facing criminal charges which are alleging fraud and misconduct in his handling of the elections results.
The election review, Ali said, will provide a foundation on which the elections commission can fix the system.
“The CoI will help to highlight weakness, challenges, opportunities, threats and ensuring that the system is fixed and functioning as it should be. We have to fix the system,” Ali said.
He noted further that the country must have an electoral body where the nation can have trust in the system.
“…We have to ensure we have a system that is a working, a system that we can trust, a system that is professional and operate in an unbiased manner so that the people in our country can have confidence…,” Ali stated.
He pointed out, too, that many stakeholders wrote to him and from reading the letters the general consensus is that “they do not want to go back to a process they went through in those five months… that is the uttermost importance in the minds of our people.”
Ali, during the speech at his inauguration had said that everyone has an obligation to ensure that history does not repeat itself. “All of us have an obligation to the nation and to ourselves to ensure that never again should any generation of our people be subjected to such unlawful behaviour,” he added.
Ali further stated that his government will pursue the necessary reforms so as to strengthen the democracy and make the electoral process more transparent. “In our manifesto we pledged to pursue inclusionary constitutional governance. I intend to see that pledge is implemented. To do so will require certain constitutional reforms which we will be formulated in consultation with the people,” he had said.
