-Henry Jeffrey rubbishes contention that allegations could only be ventilated via elections petition
POLITICAL Analyst, Dr. Henry Jeffrey, said the allegations of electoral fraud, which surfaced during the national recount, ought to be thoroughly investigated by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) ahead of the declaration of the results of the General and Regional Elections, as he dismissed the contention that those allegations could only be ventilated in the High Court via an elections petition.
The national recount, which commenced on May 6, has unearthed a wide range of irregularities and alleged cases of electoral fraud, which, according to the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC), have compromised approximately 90,000 votes. These irregularities include the discovery of 41 ballot boxes void of statutorily-required documents and missing certificates of employment, official lists of electors, oaths of identity, poll books, unused ballots and counterfoils. There were also cases in which the oaths of identity were unsigned and ballots, unstamped and partially stamped, resulting in them being deemed rejected. Added to that, the APNU+AFC has cited more than 3,000 cases, in which, it alleged that unscrupulous people voted in the place of the dead or persons who were out of the jurisdiction on March 2 when the General and Regional Elections were held in Guyana.
“Whether or not this has taken place is not a matter for speculation, but can be and must be sufficiently verified factually. If a factual investigation finds that not only one or 10 or even 100 migrants and/or dead person ‘voted’ in the elections, but hundreds and over 1,000 did and that this did not happen in one or two regions but in every region of the country, what are we to conclude? For me, the problem is not merely numerical; it is structural and suggests that some corrupt actor has been systematically attempting to influence the outcome of the 2020 elections,” Dr. Jeffrey said on June 3 in his weekly column – Future Notes, under the title – “When the winner becomes a loser.”
In a discourse on Monday, during a programme called ‘Periscope on Politics’ aired on News-Talk Radio Guyana 103.1 FM, Dr. Jeffrey iterated that these irregularities and alleged cases of electoral fraud cannot be simply brushed aside.
“Allegations are being made, and once they are being made, they must be properly investigated, and the outcome factored into the final decision,” Dr. Jeffrey said.
While the APNU+AFC has been urging GECOM to investigate these irregularities, many of which surfaced in the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) strongholds, the PPP/C and its allies have been up in arms against any investigation by the Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh-led Elections Commission, on the basis that Article 163 of the Constitution gives the High Court exclusive jurisdiction to adjudicate on matters of electoral fraud. On the flip side, the APNU+AFC has argued that Article 162 (1) (b) gives wide powers to the Elections Commission to ensure an impartial and fair electoral process.
“I don’t buy that these complaints have to be left to some sort of elections petition,” Dr. Jeffrey said, while adding, “I think it would be illogical and I would say stupid.”
“Hear what you are saying must happen – the persons who are being accused of stealing must be given the instrument – the government in other words – to prevent the investigations from happening. We have seen it happen; we have seen it happen before where up to now the petition that the PPP left has not occurred,” the political analyst said.
But while PPP/C Executive Member, Anil Nandlall, has said that the Elections Commission not only lacks the constitutional powers to facilitate an investigation but the capacity to do, Dr. Jeffrey, who forms part of A New and United Guyana (ANUG), said the Elections Commission call upon instruments of the State for assistance.
“…Whether or not these things happen, whether or not they happen, can be proven and must be proven satisfactorily, to the satisfaction of the Commission and its Chairman,” he emphasised.
BLOATED LIST
With a number of electoral safeguards in place, sections of society have argued that it was impossible for persons to vote in the place of the deceased and or electorates who were out of the jurisdiction on Elections Day, but Dr. Jeffrey posited that the Official List of Electors is undoubtedly bloated, and has created a breeding ground for electoral fraud to take place, for which both of the major political parties have used it to their advantage.
Long ahead of the no-confidence motion, the APNU+AFC had championed the cause for GECOM to facilitate house-to-house registration, so as to generate a new National Register of Registrants Database (NRRD), from which the Official List of Electors could be extracted, and though GECOM, in 2019, moved the initiate the process, under the leadership of Justice James Patterson, the PPP/C, in objection, moved to the High Court to block the move.
GECOM, under the chairmanship of Justice Singh – later took a decision to discontinue the exercise and merge the data from the house-to-house registration with the National Register of Registrants Database. The outcome – a list with more than 600,000 electors, notwithstanding the fact that Guyana’s population is 750,000.
“Why do you want to stop that from happening? Well, we have the result here…You went to elections with an extremely bloated electoral list, and now, you are hearing from the other side that dead people have voted, thousands of people abroad have voted,” the political analyst reasoned.
Maintaining a long held position, Dr. Jeffrey contended that both of the major political parties have used the “bloated” List of Electors to their benefit as part of a “culture of rigging” the elections, so as to attain a majority in the National Assembly.
In his column – ‘When the winner becomes a loser’ – Dr. Jeffrey submitted that the conspiratorial system, which has for far too long undermined and devalued the votes of the electorate, has now been broken down.
“Justice demands that given this opportunity, GECOM must do all it can to destroy this conspiratorial network that it has been bequeathed by the very conspirators who have refused to create a more democratic framework or at the minimum a clean electoral list! It appears to me absurd to conceive of doing otherwise and propagandistic comments about what the law is will not suffice. What is lawful is for courts to determine and the objecting parties can go immediately to court and present their case,” he said.
In light of the situation that currently faces the GECOM, Dr. Jeffrey, in his discourse with News-Talk Radio Guyana, said had he been the Chair of the Elections Commission, and there was a clear case of electoral fraud, he would have taken a “radical” decision to force the political parties to work together under the chairmanship for the Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards. Under such a circumstance, he suggested that the List of Electors should be “cleaned,” and elections be held after 18 months.
Source: https://issuu.com/guyanachroniclee-paper/docs/guyana_chronicle_e-paper_6-10-2020