Accusing its officials of partiality in favour of the incumbent APNU+AFC, commentator Ralph Ramkarran says that GECOM is now the major battlefield for free and fair elections and he chastised its Chair, Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh for inaction at key points in the elections process.
In his column in yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek, Ramkarran, who was the presidential candidate for A New and United Guyana at the March 2nd general elections said that for the first time since 1992, Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) officials have publicly displayed partiality in favour of the governing party by its officials deliberately transgressing the law in the counting of the ballots for District 4 and then allegedly doing so again.
A former two-term Speaker of the National Assembly, Ramkarran said that the jury is still out on whether GECOM will deliver credible election results.
With results still to be delivered eight weeks on, Ramkarran said that in any rational society, the entire membership of GECOM would have resigned due to its failure to honour its constitutional responsibilities.
He said that when the blatant violation of the law in the counting of the ballots for District 4 took place and a fraudulent declaration was made, the Chair of GECOM was in the building, and did nothing. He added that a court case declared the counting and declaration to be unlawful but the Chair sat by while an equally challenged method of resumed counting took place at Kingston, the head office of GECOM.
Singh has not explained her inaction in relation to the fraudulent declarations.
In contempt proceedings which followed, Ramkarran noted that the Chair undertook that if the results of the count of District 4 varied from the statements of poll of political parties, she would order a recount.
“By this time the entire GECOM must have been aware that under the Constitution the results are required to have been officially declared within fifteen days of the elections. The failure of GECOM to deliver the results in accordance with the Constitution, leading to its violation, is sufficient justification to assert that GECOM has failed in its constitutional responsibility and is adequate reason for GECOM to do the honourable thing”, Ramkarran said.
He pointed out that the Ulita Moore challenge to the “supervision” of the elections by CARICOM was quickly dismissed by the courts in sufficient time for GECOM to complete the recount of all ten districts agreed to by President David Granger and Leader of the Opposition Jagdeo and for Parliament to be convened by April 30, four months after its dissolution, as required by the constitution.
“For the second occasion in less than two months, GECOM has dropped the ball. It has been directly responsible for a second violation of the Constitution. Its actions, or rather omissions, are responsible for a government holding de facto power, in a time of great national and international crises due to the elections and COVID-19 pandemic, when the government ought to have long been out of office and a new government, whether of the APNU+AFC or of the PPP, managing the affairs of the country.
“The egregious failures of GECOM are causing great panic in large sections of the population. Many believe, and are on the lookout for the unfolding of events, which will reveal more plots and stratagems to either engineer a false declaration once again or to derail the recount completely”, Ramkarran declared.
He added that many are deeply troubled at any interventions, or lack thereof, that the Chief Election Officer might make or omit to make.
He said that the presence of the heads of missions at Ashmins Building did not prevent loud and aggressive hostility displayed by a prominent APNU member which neither APNU officials nor the Police did anything to stop.
This, together with APNU’s challenge through Ulita Moore of the CARICOM-sponsored Aide Memoire signed by Granger and Jagdeo, and the Police expulsion of GECOM Commissioner Sase Gunraj from the Ashmins Building, without any assurances from GECOM that these acts will not recur, lead to the conclusion that the presence of a high level CARICOM team at the upcoming recount will do nothing to prevent a repetition.
“The failure of the Chair to speak to these issues says volumes”, Ramkarran said.
He added that the international focus on Guyana’s elections and threat of sanctions by no less than the Secretaries of State of the US, the Foreign Secretary of the UK and of the EU are due solely to the actions and omissions of GECOM.
