By Lisa Hamilton
PRESIDENT David Granger has stated that while the journey towards an acceptable end to Guyana’s election process has undoubtedly been lengthy, the pending decision of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) is a straightforward and legal process which will lead towards the declaration of the elections results.
On Monday evening, the President appeared as a guest on the ‘Straight Up’ programme on Radio 107.1 where he spoke to the approaching CCJ case; the irregularities uncovered during the national recount and the involvement of the international community.
A LEGAL PROCESS
“We are now in a situation in which the movement forward is quite logical, although it is taking a long time and it’s a bit slow,” the President began, addressing a live audience of over 10,000 listeners. “As we know, the opposition has taken the issue of the validity of the votes to the Caribbean Court of Justice and, the day after tomorrow, Wednesday July 1, the CCJ is expected to hear arguments.”
Though the President views the pursuit of the matter already declared as final by the Appellate Court as “an act of desperation” by the opposition, he nonetheless remains confident that the ruling of the Guyana’s Appeal Court will be upheld. Come July 1, 2020, the CCJ will first determine whether it has jurisdiction to rule on the matter given that Article 177 (4) of the Constitution states that the Appellate Court’s previous ruling, that valid votes must be used to declare the election, is final.
Even so, the President said that he is pleased that, thus far, nothing has been done to remove the process from the authority of the Elections Commission; the courts continue to be respected and the Constitution still prevails. “I have no doubt that in a very short time, and I hope that by this weekend, we will be able to announce to the Guyanese public that the elections process has been brought to an end and a president will be declared,” he said.
INTEGRITY MATTERS
Presently, the recount is only at its Third Phase and the Head of State said that the possibility of the contamination of the ballots cast, as made evident during phase one of the process, must be taken into consideration. Phase one of the recount involved the physical counting of the ballots; Phase two saw the preparation and submission of an Elections Report by the Chief Elections Officer (CEO); Phase three should see deliberation on the said report at the commission level and, phase four, a declaration.
“The process is quite straightforward that the report is not simply an arithmetic report, it is also a qualitative report,” the President said. Pointing to the report and recommendations of the CARICOM Scrutinising Team which was present during phase one of the recount, he said that one can easily discern how seriously they stressed the issue of determining the integrity of the elections process. He expounded: “The team recommended an investigation into missing documents, it recommends total re-registration of all voters in Guyana, it recommends that the structure of the Election Commission be changed, they said that it simply will not work. It finally recommended that, given all the irregularities which occurred during the period of the electoral cycle, ‘we highly recommend that a political audit be conducted of the operations.”
The President urged those both in and out of the country not to run away with the impression that because the numerical tally favored one political party over the other that concerns were not raised by those who were part of the process, such as the CARICOM Team and the CEO. The irregularities highlighted during the recount include counterfoils and ballots carrying the same number; ballots for one region cast in another; ballots cast for the dead and persons who have migrated; persons voting without proper identification; persons voting outside of their districts without employment documents; large numbers of improperly stamped ballots at locations where disciplined services members voted; missing poll books; documents from one polling station being found in the ballot boxes of another and ballot boxes with no single statutory documents.
“This is the reason why, on Monday the 22, the Guyana Court of Appeal ruled that votes must mean ‘valid votes’. If votes are fraudulent or votes exceed the number of people on the [Official List of Electors], they can’t be valid and this is the lesson that the Guyanese population has learnt, that people were meticulously and methodically tampering with the votes,” the President said. He has previously called out the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) for applying a “flaking off” strategy through which ‘a little here and a little there’ amounts to a significant total of the ballots cast.
A HOST OF MISINFORMATION
The President said that there has been a host of misinformation about the elections in Guyana and, frankly put, this must be clarified to truthfully represent the issues facing the country. He said that though his government disagrees with the sentiments shared by some from the international community, it should not be viewed as “international hostility” but as a misunderstanding of what has unfolded in Guyana, the country’s electoral system and its Constitution.
Speaking on the recent input of CARICOM through its Chair, Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, he said: “I have great respect for my Caribbean colleagues. They are concerned, Guyana is the headquarter of the Caribbean Community and, to use a cricketing expression, they stepped out of their crease to come here to bat for Guyana and I think they understand the complexity of the elections in Guyana. I don’t see them as interfering.”
Later, addressing the matter generally, he added: “The critics of the government over the last 119 days must accept that the electoral process was corrupted by the People’s Progressive Party and that has to be brought to an end.”
The Head of State said that he has never interfered in the internal workings of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM); his government remains entirely compliant with the Constitution and he is pleased that Guyana’s election management is being left entirely in the hands of GECOM. He stated “The process is in the hands of the commission, I cannot intervene at this stage, I’ve never intervened before and I will not intervene now. We have a legal process, it is taking a long time, but it is a legitimate process and let us wait to see the outcome.”
Source: https://issuu.com/guyanachroniclee-paper/docs/guyana_chronicle_e-paper_7-1-2020