A proposal for an elections audit by Government-aligned Commissioner of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Vincent Alexander must be resisted since it is not catered for in law and would only seek to further delay the declaration of the March 2 elections while keeping the Administration in office for another six months.
Former Attorney General Anil Nandlall
This is the position articulated by former Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic Administration, Anil Nandlall, who over the weekend sought to also rubbish the proposal by the Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield to have a national recount be done in 156 days, calling the ploy ‘entrapment’.
GECOM Government-nominated Commissioner Vincent Alexander
According to Nandlall, the Government Commissioner through his proposal for an elections audit, “in essence, wants the decision to do a recount altered to do an audit, instead. This must be fiercely resisted.”
He was adamant, “no one ever called for an audit and no decision was ever made to do an audit. In any event, the law does not provide for an audit to be done. It is unnecessary and will only delay the process further”.
Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield
Speaking to Lowenfield’s involvement in the delay tactics, Nandlall noted that when he was tasked with the responsibility of preparing a document reflecting the modus operandi of the impending recount, he “produces a document which is completely consistent with the political agenda of the Congress Place cabal: a proposal that would keep the cabal in Government for another six months while incorporating Alexander’s scheme for an audit”.
Nandlall has since called the move an attempt at entrapment and has posited, “the document is replete with materials and bases to create the platform for a legal challenge to be launched against the recount when it is convenient to the political masterminds to do so”.
He suggests, “It is for this reason that the PPP Commissioners put forward separate proposals.”
According to Nandlall, “in so doing, we followed the law as closely as possible, very wary of a possible litigious entrapment. A recount is a legal process and cannot be the subject of political compromise … If we dare deviate from the law, no doubt they would rush to court to knock it down.”
The former Attorney General in weighing in on the current electoral impasse called for the recount by the Commission to begin as early as this week.
He also lashed out at GECOM Chairperson, Retired Justice Claudette Singh, saying “her failure to act decisively and using that powerful casting vote with which she is legally equipped have contributed significantly to the cabal currently holding this nation at ransom.”
According to Nandlall, “Justice Singh must take command now. The recount must be kick-started next week and conclude with every convenient speed. She must ensure that it is done transparently.”
He suggested too that “voting in support of our request to have the process televised and streamed live will go a far way in achieving this objective”.
The Commission is set to meet again this week when it is expected to consider an amended proposal by Lowenfield for a national recount of the elections that would be incorporating proposals submitted by the Opposition PPP.
The GECOM CEO had originally proposed to have the recount done taking just over five months (156 days) – a proposal that had been widely rejected by the PPP/C and other political parties contesting the elections in addition to sections of civil society and the business community.
During a marathon meeting held at the Commission’s Kingston headquarters at the end of the week, the Opposition Commissioners presented their counter-proposal which demonstrated how the countrywide recount could be done in a shorter period of time.
Lowenfield’s work plan had contemplated using three work stations and had allotted two hours each per ballot box.
The Opposition GECOM Commissioners’ plan, however, proposes as many as 20 work stations so as to fast-track the process, with regions being tabulated simultaneously.
The two Commissioners, following the meeting, both spoke to the fact that there had been consensus on a decision to have the formal recount and that the Arthur Chung Conference Centre would be used.
