– Jagdeo says
THERE is a contest over which of two elections data should be used to make a final declaration. Though the country’s two major political parties have labelled one or the other of the elections data as being “fraudulent”, PPP/C General Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo, made clear his party’s preference on Tuesday.
At different points of the over four-month long election, both parties have accused the other of wanting to use fraudulent results. Presently, the PPP/C is at odds with the Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield for his utilisation of the March 2020 10 Electoral District declarations to form his Elections Report.
The CEO’s report, in utilising these results, show a win for the APNU+AFC. However, it is unlikely that this will be accepted by the PPP/C as the party has long deemed “fraudulent” the Region Four declaration made by Returning Officer (RO), Clairmont Mingo.
On the other hand, the PPP/C wants the CEO to utilise the data coming out of the national recount process which, from its numerical standpoint, show a win for the party. However, it is unlikely that the APNU+AFC will accept this as they have highlighted that the process uncovered massive “fraudulent” cases of voter impersonation and ballot boxes void of their statutory documents.
In a previous elections report of the CEO — since set aside by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) — when the votes which were unable to be verified as valid were removed, it showed a win for the APNU+AFC. The CCJ had invalidated this report noting that if the integrity of a ballot or the manner in which a vote was procured is questioned beyond the validation exercise, such could only be pursued under Article 163 of the Constitution by way of an Elections Petition.
The court’s judgement tarnished the main aim of the recount which was to determine the validity of votes cast in the March 2, 2020 General and Regional elections. It was Order No. 60 that set the national recount into legal motion and which gave GECOM the power to ensure that it could “remove the difficulties” in the process such as the anomalies highlighted by the APNU+AFC.
However, the CCJ slashed this remit in its judgement when it said that to give GECOM the power to determine the validity of ballots cast beyond “votes that, on their face, are valid” is contrary to the Constitution. In other words, even if there is proof of fraudulent acts beyond the weeding out process of spoilt of rejected ballots, this can only be pursued through an elections court after a declaration is made.
However, fast forward to the CEO’s return to the utilisation of the declarations for the 10 Electoral Districts, in accordance with Section 96 of the Representation of the People Act (ROPA), the PPP/C has objected to a declaration based on these results because they see it as “Mingo’s fraudulent results”.
The party has not turned to Article 163 of the Constitution which states that any grievances should be taken up by way of an Elections Petition after a declaration is made.
PPP/C General Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo, contested at Tuesday’s public briefing: “This whole country, the entire world, has witnessed the numbers that Mingo produced out of the air and in the recount how those numbers were proven fraudulent. They’ve already been proven fraudulent. So, what effectively they’re asking the court, is to allow the use of fraudulent numbers to declare the results of the elections.”
In a recent interview, APNU+AFC Co-Campaign Manager, Raphael Trotman had said that, according to law, once the CEO tenders his report under ROPA, it cannot be changed or replaced whether or not there is inadvertent or deliberate error. Jagdeo did not take kindly to these remarks and argued that the commission must have some power to compel the CEO not to compile a “fraudulent” report.
“He [Trotman] says even if the report is wrong…GECOM must accept it as a rubber stamp. [It is a] Constitutional body and…they must now be subservient to the statutory officer [Lowenfield]? How could you be so perverse to even suggest that?” he argued.
Also, on Tuesday afternoon, a court action was filed against GECOM and its Chairman. The applicant is seeking to have the 10 declarations submitted by the CEO used for the finalising of the election result. It has paused the commission’s meetings and further deliberation on the route towards a declaration.
Jagdeo believes that if the matter were to once again end up before the CCJ, that the court would have much to say about the “distortion of their ruling” with regards to the use of the recount data.
The General Secretary said that the recount data is the only data his party will accept and, should the APNU+AFC be declared the victor of the elections, his party will take to the streets in its numbers. For now, he said that it is too risky because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Source: https://issuu.com/guyanachroniclee-paper/docs/guyana_chronicle_epaper_07_15_2020