It would be unconscionable to delay this declaration any further

Dear Editor,

Noting the national importance of the Guyana March 2 election issue that was presented to it, the CCJ’s President Adrian Saunders observed that everyone would want this matter to be over as soon as practicably possible. “We are on a tight time-frame.”

The court received oral and written submissions and delivered its judgment in one week.  Two days have gone by so far, and GECOM has failed to meet and follow through on its mandate.  Something about this is very wrong.

The very first paragraph of the court’s judgment states:

It is a matter of considerable concern to the people of Guyana that, although General and Regional Elections (‘the Elections”) were held as long ago  as  2  March  2020,  to date, the results of the Elections have not been declared and the President and members of the National Assembly have not been appointed. The Constitution, which expressly declares that it is the supreme law, professes the Co-operative Republic of Guyana to be a democratic sovereign State. Elections that are free and fair are the lifeblood of any true democracy. All arms of state, whether legislative, judicial, or executive, are subject to the normative, enabling, and limiting jurisdictions, powers, and responsibilities that are constitutionally legitimate.

And the final paragraph wraps up with:

As Guyana’s final court, we cannot, however, pretend to be oblivious of events that have transpired since December 2018. Indeed, we have had to pronounce on some of those events. It has been four months since the Elections were held and the country has been without a Parliament for well over a year. No one in Guyana would regard this to be a satisfactory state of affairs. We express the fervent hope that there would quickly be a peaceable restoration of normalcy.

The court ordered that the CEO’s report be set aside. The ruling could not be more clear, firm and eloquent.  Yet APNU/AFC commissioners needed time to “study it.”  In addition, David Granger and other party members continue to put out misleading information and circulate distorted material to their supporters. 

The fraudulent Lowenfield report set aside by the CCJ sought to disenfranchise 116,000 or 25% of voters in the March 2, 2020 Guyana election. 

The original SOP’s and the recount are virtually identical.  They show the following vote totals by party: PPP/C 233,336, APNU/AFC 217,920, Joinders 5,214 and Other Parties 3,882.   These are the valid results.  At this point, most Guyanese know that the electoral processes is designed in such a manner, that by definition only valid votes are tabulated as such.

In endorsement of the CCJ ruling, the ABCE ambassadors, the Mandela Elders, CARICOM, the US Assistant Secretary of State and others have all called for the declaration of the long overdue election results and the swearing in of the President.

It would be unconscionable to delay this any further.

Yours faithfully,

Ron Cheong