Guyana Elections 2020

On Wednesday the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) delivered its judgment invalidating the ruling of the Guyana Court of Appeal on valid votes, which essentially paved the way for GECOM to finally declare a result for the March 2nd general elections using the figures from the recount. 

The Guyana Elections Commission can ignore any report from Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield that does not conform with the law.

A group of Caribbean NGOs have iterated their support for Guyanese to enjoy a free, fair and democratic system of election that expresses the will of the people and have also posited the need for a more inclusionary process of government going forward.

Dear Editor, Reference is made to an advertisement in the Trinidad Guardian (page 10 July 5) regarding the Guyana constitution and jurisdiction of the Caribbean Court of Justice.

The Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) yesterday again urged peace and responsible behaviour by all as the nation awaits the final declaration of the March 02, 2020, General and Regional Elections.

Dear Editor, There is no mystery regarding the electoral defeat of the APNU+AFC at the 2020 elections.

We must ask – on what grounds and by what form of executive fiat does the Chief Elections Officer determine that he should invalidate 1 vote, far less over 115 000 votes when the votes were already certified as valid by officers of the Guyana Elections Commission in the presence of the political parties.

The Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) has written the Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) urging the immediate dismissal of Keith Lowenfield from the post of Chief Election Officer (CEO).

Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretary General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque yesterday stressed that each action taken by the Community to help resolve Guyana’s elections crisis was “by invitation” and in an attempt to maintain regional grouping’s reputation as a bastion of democracy.

On June 13, Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield, told the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) that “instances of voter impersonation” have affected the standard of the March 2 Polls and used this and other alleged anomalies to invalidate approximately 25% of the ballots cast but an interview from 2015 shows the same Lowenfield contending that impersonation “is just not possible”.

After listening to more than six hours of submissions, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) yesterday set next Wednesday at 3pm to rule on whether it has jurisdiction to hear the appeal taken before it by PPP General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo and PPP/C presidential candidate Irfaan Ali, challenging the decision of the local Court of Appeal to pronounce on the constitutional meaning of “votes cast” at the March 2 polls.

In the face of mounting pressure to accept the results of the recount which show that he lost the March 2nd  general elections, President David Granger yesterday said that he will not prematurely accept either defeat or a win and will await the official declaration of the Guy-ana Elections Commission (GECOM).

The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) convenes a full hearing of all matters associated with the appeal by Bharrat Jagdeo and Irfaan Ali of the decision by the Guyana Court of Appeal which sought to assert that the word “valid” has to be used to determine the votes cast for the purposes of the election of a President.

While President David Granger has endorsed the controversial move by Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield to discard 25% of the votes cast at the March 2 polls, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday said that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) could still rectify the situation.

Two separate private criminal charges have been filed against Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield by members of the PPP/C and The New Movement (TNM) over his controversial decision to seek to invalidate over 115,000 votes from the March 2 polls.

Guyana is in a most profound crisis. This crisis has been in the making for over 50 years – ever since the declaration of independence that came on the heels of the collapse of a multiracial anticolonial movement, the intervention of the joined imperialist forces of the UK and US and the convulsive coastal racial disturbances of the 1960s that delivered almost unshakeable constituencies of African and Indian Guyanese to the two major political parties in Guyana.

President David Granger last evening endorsed a controversial report by Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield which invalidated the votes of 25% of Guyanese electors.

Dear Editor,  Guyana is at a place of much uncertainty, far more uncomfortable from that of ‘cricket glorious’.

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.

Dear Editor, Yesterday’s Sunday Edition of the Guyana Chronicle’s, lead headline loudly screams, `Dr.