President Irfaan Ali has assured that the functioning of a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the March 2020 elections would not interfere with the ongoing hearing of the elections cases before the courts.
He gave the assurance on Wednesday night after being asked by Sunday Stabroek.
On June 21, President Ali announced the establishment of a CoI into the 2020 elections. The Commission will be headed by retired Trinidad Justice of Appeal Stanley John and includes former Attorney General, High Court Judge and Acting Justice of Appeal in the Eastern Caribbean Godfrey P. Smith SC; former Chair and Chief Elections Commissioner of India Dr S. Y. Quraishi; and former Chancellor (Ag) of the Guyana Judiciary Carl Singh.
Ali had said that CoI will put many assumptions to rest and present the truth to the people of Guyana about the attempt to rig the March 2020 polls.
Five months after the March 2nd 2020 polls and after a series of legal battles, Ali was finally declared the winner of the presidential elections and subsequently sworn in as the country’s ninth executive president, on August 2, 2020.
After taking office, he promised the probe into the elections by an international team. He had also committed his government to pursuing the necessary reforms so as to strengthen democracy and make the electoral process more transparent.
The President said that the members of the CoI are now in the process of reviewing the documentation in preparation of the terms of reference (ToR).
“There is a parallel process and this was the reason I came under criticism for not bringing the CoI into operation [sooner]. But I said earlier that it is difficult to have the CoI running concurrently with an ongoing criminal case. So now you have to find that delicate balance to satisfy all of what is ongoing. The team is now working on documents to ensure that the TORs, while all-encompassing, does not interfere with the court cases,” Ali explained.
He added following the development of the ToR, then the actual work of the Commission would begin.
On Monday, Ali, responding to questions from this newspaper at the conclusion of the opening ceremony of the National Toshaos’ Council Conference, Ali said that when he last spoke to the Chairman, retired Trinidad Justice of Appeal Stanley John, in the previous week, it was indicated [to him] that the Commissioners are working to have a ToR in place. “They are now working with each other, talking with each other, crystalising the Terms of Reference. The Terms of Reference have to be in keeping with all the other things that is happening around the issues surrounding the elections,” Ali said.
Meanwhile, there are currently several criminal cases, all stemming from the 2020 polls, before the local courts.
District Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo was accused of twice presenting falsified figures – on March 5th and March 13th – and the major observer groups had found his tabulation not to be credible.
GECOM subsequently executed a painstaking recount with international observers which showed that the PPP/C had won the majority of votes.
Mingo, former Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield and APNU+AFC agent Volda Lawrence have since faced criminal charges, including conspiracy to commit fraud, for their alleged roles in the attempted manipulation of the results. The charges faced by Mingo and Lowenfield include alleged misconduct in public office.
Sheffern February, a clerk employed by GECOM, was charged with two counts of attempting to defraud the people of Guyana, while Enrique Livan, an Information Technology officer attached to GECOM, was also taken before court on a charge of manipulating the numbers of the statements of poll that were recorded in the system so that they reflected fraudulent numbers for District Four.
Their cases are still ongoing in the Magistrates’ Courts.
Additionally, the APNU+AFC filed two election petitions to review the 2020 polls but one was subsequently dismissed. However, the case is currently before the Caribbean Court of Justice after the Guyana Court of Appeal ruled that it has jurisdiction to hear the appeal of the dismissal of the petition.
The elections petition was filed by Monica Thomas and Brennan Nurse. On December 21st, last, the local court of appeal in a majority 2-1 decision ruled that it has jurisdiction to hear the appeal of the petition. Chancellor Cummings-Edwards and Justice of Appeal Dawn Gregory concurred with each other, while Justice of Appeal, Rishi Persaud dissented.
Acting Chief Justice (CJ) Roxane George SC had previously thrown out the petition, after finding that presidential candidate of the APNU+AFC, David Granger was not served on time.
Thomas and Nurse are contending in their petition that the elections were unlawfully conducted and/or that the results (if lawfully conducted) were affected or might have been affected by unlawful acts or omissions. They nonetheless argue that from those polls it is Granger who should be declared the duly-elected President of Guyana.
The CCJ hearing will commence on Tuesday.
