The conspiracy to deny the will of the people continues unrestrained.
The failure yesterday by the Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield to comply with the instruction of the Gecom Chair to present his final report for certification of the result and the sudden indisposition of two government-appointed commissioners thereby thwarting a quorum are further signs of the malevolent plotting. These latest shenanigans coupled with an incredulous approach yesterday to the Guyana Court of Appeal are redolent of a desperation in the ranks of APNU+AFC and its supporters as they continue their quest to hold on illicitly to power no matter the terrible cost to the country and its people.
The Gecom Chair, Claudette Singh, must not permit this dangerous assault on democracy to continue. That the country is on the cusp of a certified result must be credited to Justice Singh, who despite a series of missteps following her appointment to the Commission finally made a clear, unambiguous decision which every democrat, every believer in the rule of law and every honest citizen committed to fairness could applaud without reservation.
On Wednesday Justice Singh dispatched a letter to Chief Election Officer stating that he would have to submit a report by 1 pm “tomorrow” (i.e. yesterday) using “the results of the recount”. As we reported it came at the end of a meeting when the Chair lent her casting vote in support of a motion brought by opposition Commissioner Robeson Benn for a declaration to be made. Under the Representation of the People Act and the Order for the Recount, Mr Lowenfield is to use the matrices for the recount of the 10 Electoral Districts to compile a report showing the number of votes cast for each list of candidates; the number of rejected ballot papers and the number of seats allocated to each list of candidates.
What this means, as we also reported, is that that PPP/C has won the 2020 election and will have 33 seats in the new Parliament with APNU+AFC on 31 and the LJP, ANUG and TNM on a list joinder, one.
A cacophony of voices wanted Justice Singh to nullify the elections because of violations allegedly uncovered during the recount process, for which, it must be said, no evidence has been adduced. However, according to a Gecom press release the Chair said during the Wednesday meeting that while some of the allegations are of a serious nature and must be addressed, under Article 163 (1) (b) of the Constitution it is the High Court which has the exclusive jurisdiction to decide the validity of an election. Furthermore, questions about the validity of the elections should go the elections petition route for the purposes of judicial review.
This notwithstanding, even after she had written to Mr Lowenfield, Mr Joseph Harmon, the ever loquacious campaign manager for the coalition who operates in his own time-warp, posted that, “No elections in Guyana can be determined on votes that are not valid … in my view, the CEO cannot declare anything other than valid votes and his determination in what are valid votes, we would need to see those reports of the CEO reflected in the way those votes are tallied.”
And how many valid votes does he think there are? Only 185,260, according to Mr Lowenfield, 125,010 of which were cast for APNU+AFC and 56,628 for the PPP/C. This left observers such as the OAS open-mouthed. The total from the Recount is 460,295 votes, with the PPP/C winning by 15,416 votes. Mr Harmon also suggested that the Gecom Chair’s directions were not clear. He was obviously not reading the same letter signed by Justice Singh that everyone else was. It was eminently clear, unambiguous and not subject to misinterpretation.
It is to be noted that the notice of motion filed with the Court of Appeal yesterday in the name of Eslyn David mirrors the vacuous allegations outlined by Mr Harmon.
If this week the electorate can thank Justice Singh for her decision, over the whole election period voters have the overseas elections observers and the several of the western democracies to thank for helping to create the context for a return to principle and rationality in our electoral affairs. Their unswerving insistence that the vote was free and fair, that the tabulations for all districts save one were without problems, and that Mr Mingo in Region Four had attempted in full public view to foist a fallacious outcome on the nation, narrowed the space in which APNU+AFC could manoeuvre in their attempts to steal the election. No one can deny the service which the Carter Center, the OAS, the Commonwealth, the EU and Caricom have done us. Guyanese democracy, however it evolves, will always remember them for their work in 2020.
But it was Sir Shridath Ramphal who yesterday particularly singled out Caricom for praise. His commendations were not misplaced. It was not of course the first time that the regional organisation had been involved in Guyana’s electoral affairs. The first occasion which is not generally well known, was in early1986, following the heavily rigged 1985 election when Dominica’s Eugenia Charles wanted Guyana thrown out of Caricom. At a meeting with leaders in Mustique, the President Desmond Hoyte agreed to free elections and a free press, among other things, a story recounted in more recent years by former Prime Minister of St Vincent James Mitchell and the late Prime Minister of St Lucia John Compton. Hoyte himself confirmed the agreement in a private conversation after he left office.
To what extent Hoyte felt himself bound by the commitment to a free and fair poll will never be known, but Caricom was here in 1998 in relation to the elections the previous year, when it confirmed the vote count, and the ‘three wise men’ including Sir Shridath himself, negotiated the Herdmanston Accord to break the impasse which had arisen.
And now it has done us another major service. At President Granger’s request, no less, and following Mr Bharrat Jagdeo’s concurrence, current Caricom Chair Mia Mottley agreed to the organisation’s official overseeing of a recount. However, to the President’s eternal discredit he then did not prevent one of his own candidates from going to court to stop it.
Despite that interruption when the members had to return home, Caricom still agreed to come back, and that in a middle of a pandemic and over a time-frame which was extended because all kinds of impediments were placed in the way of the process being speeded up. The regional organisation above all others has shown its commitment to democracy here, yet despite that, unfortunately some of its leading figures who, with one exception, are no longer in office, were the targets of contumely on the part of Mr Joseph Harmon. It said nothing for this de facto government’s observation of the protocols, never mind common courtesy.
Sir Shridath called the Caricom report on the recount, “more than a milestone in democracy in Guyana; it is a landmark in democratic ethics throughout Caricom.” Indeed.
