At the height of the elections shenanigans in March of 2020 it had become obvious that the Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh had failed comprehensively to execute her mandate. The vital period, of course, was on March 5th 2020 when she was found ensconced in a room on the third floor of the Ashmins building while the District Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo was ruthlessly declaring fake results in favour of the incumbent APNU+AFC to the horror of bystanders. It wasn’t that Ms Singh was unaware of what was happening. The former Canadian High Commissioner to Guyana Lilian Chatterjee had told Stabroek News in an interview that on March 5th she had ventured to where Ms Singh was to ensure that she was aware of what Mr Mingo was doing. Others also made the effort but it appears that Ms Singh was completely unmoved, preferring to remain hidden away in the company of perhaps a dozen persons whose business in proximity to the GECOM Chair remains unclear. Why would this be so? We are still to be told exactly why.
Given her disastrous and questionable conduct one would have expected that the GECOM chair would have resigned or been removed. However, there wasn’t room immediately for this after the March 5th fiasco considering that the results of the elections still had to be declared and APNU+AFC supporters were doing their utmost to prevent a recount of the votes which had been agreed upon under the auspices of CARICOM then chaired by Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley.
For the first time since the events of March 5th, 2020, the country heard in some detail from Ms Singh what had transpired that day when she appeared on Thursday, December 9th before the Commission of Inquiry established by President Irfaan Ali. What the GECOM Chair had to say rules her out of consideration to preside over any future general election in this country. Ms Singh told the CoI that during a critical period of the day’s drama, she journeyed to a room on the third floor of the Ashmins Building since she was feeling unwell.
“I felt a bit dizzy. I wasn’t feeling well. There were so many things on my mind I was actually shaking…With the declaration…there were so many events,” she said.
She added “…I said I will spend some time in a quiet moment up there and just reflect on everything which had happened,” further noting “I didn’t want to speak with anyone. I just wanted time because I was not feeling too well. I felt a bit dizzy and I just wanted to be by myself”.
Despite having been appointed as Chair on July 26, 2019, Singh told the CoI that she was still “strange” to GECOM and didn’t know who to trust. She said the only person she called on was then APNU+AFC Government Minister, Amna Ally who she described as a “friend” who would often support her.
“I called her because I was afraid for my life. I thought people were coming to harm me…I knew her, she was a Minister, and she would give me some support. She told me she would be calling someone,” Singh told the CoI. It does not appear that Ms Singh understood that reaching out to then Minister Ally in the midst of a general election controversy pitting her party against the opposition would appear untoward.
Charitably deeming her actions “odd”, CoI Commissioner, Justice Godfrey Smith described it as Singh abandoning her post at a critical juncture during the elections.
“To say you couldn’t be bothered seems odd because you are the Chair and you are in the middle of a very serious situation. I simply want to know, at that point did you call other Commissioners and say look, I am feeling stressed, let’s meet together and weather the storm, I am not taking this on, on my own. Did that occur to you or you just preferred to shut yourself away?” Justice Smith asked Ms Singh.
The GECOM Chair would only say that at that time, the Commissioners had left the building.
The milieu surrounding Ms Singh’s conduct is important. Ms Singh was appointed GECOM Chair in July 2019 after the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) had ruled that then President Granger’s appointment of James Patterson as Chairman was null and void. Mr Patterson had been appointed after President Granger had unprecedentedly rejected three separate lists with six candidates each. The then APNU+AFC government had also done its utmost to prevent the holding of general elections after its defeat in a motion of no-confidence on December 21, 2018. This resistance ended when the CCJ affirmed the validity of the motion of no-confidence on June 18, 2019.
When she accepted the position of Chair, Ms Singh had to have been aware of the pitched battle that was being waged within and outside GECOM for the return of APNU+AFC to office by apparently any means necessary. More specifically, revulsion and condemnation over the use of an illegal spreadsheet emerged on March 4th, 2020, a full day before Ms Singh locked herself away in a room on the third floor. After a smooth day of voting on March 2nd it should have been clear to Ms Singh that the events of March 4th were the beginnings of a sinister plot to overturn the results of District 4 and this was when she need to stamp her presence on elections and ensure that Mr Mingo and the Chief Election Officer were complying judiciously with the law. She failed to act. There was no evidence of any threat to Ms Singh preventing her from executing her duties in stopping the attempted rigging. She did not raise this with GECOM or the police. She simply failed in her responsibilities as Chair leading to a draining month-long recount of votes and continuing efforts to derail the process by legal and extra-legal actions. It was a sorry performance by Ms Singh that placed democracy in direct jeopardy and raised questions about the extent of the conspiracy within GECOM and its intersection with elements of the political directorate to overturn the will of the people.
Ms Singh should really not be presiding over the upcoming local government elections though some might argue that it won’t attract the same level of intent to control the results and that she should be allowed to continue as Chair. There is no way, however, that she could conceivably be in charge for the next general election.
