Private criminal charges of misconduct in public office have been filed against Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) retired Justice Claudette Singh, for what complainants are alleging is her disregard to have heeded advice that the recount of votes of the March 2nd elections was unlawful.
According to legal documents seen by this newspaper, Keith Ondaan of Amelia’s Ward Linden is alleging that despite advice from the Commission’s legal officer and Chief Parliamentary Counsel on March 16th and May 17th respectively that the recount was unlawful Singh “recklessly and unlawfully” disregarded that advice.
Ondaan is contending that though the Chairperson had been informed that the recount was “unconstitutional,” she “knowingly caused” the order which facilitated the recount, to be gazetted.
Also filing misconduct charges against the Chairperson are Lorraine Joseph of Melanie Damishana, East Coast Demerara (ECD) and Onita Walcott of Victoria Village ECD.
For her part, Joseph is alleging that between May 29th and June 23rd the Chairperson “acted recklessly and unlawfully” by breaching the recount order gazette on May 4th and an amended recount order of May 29th.
Meanwhile, Walcott is alleging that between March 14th, June 13th and 23rd, Singh acted recklessly and unlawfully by refusing to accept the report of Chief Elections Officer of the Commission—Keith Lowenfield.
Stabroek News understands that Singh has not yet been served, but that the matter will be called on August 5th before the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court.
Since general and regional elections were held on March 2nd, there is yet to be an official declaration of the results.
A plethora of litigation which is still ongoing has been mounted over the embattled elections.
Both the incumbent APNU+AFC and the main opposition PPP/C have claimed victory at the polls.
A national recount of ballots cast was, however, subsequently executed which indicate an opposition win.
Though the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ)—Guyana’s final appellate court has endorsed the validity of the recount, a government supporter has since mounted the most recent challenge to the recount’s validity.
Last Monday, acting Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire ruled among other things, that quite contrary to litigant Misenga Jones’ interpretation, the CCJ did in fact validate the recount, the results from which the chief justice said are the only ones that can to be used to make an official declaration.
Jones has since appealed Justice George-Wiltshire’s ruling to the Guyana Court of Appeal which will be delivering its ruling at 11 tomorrow morning.
Jones is of the view that GECOM was obligated to accept the CEO’s report of June 11th, made before the recount, in which he relied on the declarations made up to March 13 by the Returning Officers for the 10 administrative regions.
Those declarations, which were disputed due to the manipulation of the Region Four results, had been held in abeyance as the recount was agreed to. The recount showed that the PPP/C won the majority of votes, while Lowenfield had sought to declare results in favour of the incumbent APNU+AFC.
Following the CCJ ruling, Singh had instructed Lowenfield to submit a report using tabulations from the national recount of ballots cast on March 2nd. Lowenfield has, however, repeatedly submitted reports which show a win for the incumbent.
The tabulation of the recounted ballots saw the opposition People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) leading the incumbent A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) by 15,416 votes—with the PPP/C securing 233,336 votes compared with 217,920 secured by APNU+AFC.
Before the recount, a highly controversial declaration made by Clairmont Mingo, Returning Officer for Electoral District Four, the coalition was poised to win with 237,017 of the 472,834 votes cast. This is 7,638 more than the 229,379 secured by the PPP/C.
