Introduction
Following hours of chaos on March 13th, District Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo bawled out a second fraudulent declaration for Demerara-Mahaica even though earlier that day Chief Justice Roxane George had issued specific instructions on the use of Statements of Poll (SoPs) which he failed to comply with.
By the time he uttered his declaration around 11 pm in the hearing of APNU+AFC supporters, agents for political parties had already walked out in disgust from the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Headquarters in Kingston.
Mingo’s second fraudulent declaration compounded the electoral crisis that had blown up around his first maligned declaration on March 5th at the Ashmins building amid loud roars of “no!” With the controversy gathering steam on March 14 and contempt of court proceedings being filed against Mingo over his second declaration, CARICOM Chair, Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley intervened that day with an agreement between President David Granger and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo for a recount of the votes of all 10 districts. What had been seen then as a solution to the impasse has now been ensnared in even greater defiance in what is now widely seen as a sustained plot to rig the general elections in favour of APNU+AFC. A three-person CARICOM observer team delivered a report on June 15 declaring that the recount results provide a perfect basis for the declaration of a winner. Those results show a win for the opposition PPP.
President Granger has however maintained silence on the June 15 report though APNU+AFC officials have attacked it and claimed that thousands of irregularities were discovered during the recount. In the meanwhile following an approach by a supporter of APNU+AFC to the Guyana Court of Appeal to prevent the declaration of the recount result, that court on June 22nd issued an order seeking to insert the word `valid’ into provisions governing how the Chief Election Officer (CEO) decides the winner of the Presidency. This has seen Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield inexplicably junking 25% of the votes and presenting a result in favour of APNU+AFC. Noting the results of the CARICOM report on the recount, Mottley has questioned on what basis Lowenfield disenfranchised one person let alone over 115,000. The opposition PPP has since approached the Caribbean Court of Justice to have the Court of Appeal order overturned. This case will be heard on Wednesday.
However, this latest court action plays out the final decision will be left to GECOM and particularly its Chair, Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh
With Chief Justice Roxane George ruling on March 11th that the March 5th declaration of results for District Four by Returning Officer (RO) Clairmont Mingo, following the March 2nd general and regional elections was null and void, Mingo was bound by the court to return to the verification process to allow observers and party agents to witness the tabulation of votes.
