Home Letters APNU/AFC must accept that ‘only court of law’ can determine alleged election...
Dear Editor,
The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is being needlessly badgered by the Opposition A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC). It is almost ludicrous to think that they are ‘not getting it.’ By now it is common knowledge that GECOM has no jurisdiction to investigate these ‘supposed’ unlawful acts, as only a court of law can determine alleged election illegalities. So, why the incessant pettifogging from APNU/AFC?
As painfully pointed out on so many occasions, and again iterated by the GECOM Public Relations Officer (PRO) Yolanda Ward, “…Article 163 (1bi) of the Constitution unambiguously states that only the High Court has this jurisdiction.”
My suggestion is that APNU/AFC and their ‘few supporters’ take note that “… the Constitution of Guyana stipulates that subject to the provisions of this article, the High Court shall have exclusive jurisdiction to determine any question whether, either generally or in any particular place, an election has been lawfully conducted or the result thereof has been or might have been, affected by any unlawful act or omission.”
So, here is my take.
First, I did mention ‘few supporters’ in my opening paragraph. This is a fact. I invite any and every one to visit the protest scene. It seems the farthest of things from a protest. I counted the number of persons when I passed the last time, and it did not number ten. I am serious. I am honest. I think by now the protest has petered out, as more and more people are accepting that APNU/AFC are engaging in lies and dissimulation; they seem destined to futility.
Secondly, APNU+AFC were forced to seek cover for their duplicity and subterfuge when Attorney General Anil Nandall called their bluff. The details herein make for ‘good fun.’ What happened is that this ‘incriminating’ and ‘sacrosanct’ list (theirs, of course) was requested, and this punctured the fluff of APNU/AFC. Their ‘trump card’ became their ‘ticket to hell.’ And hence the claim from them is that “some persons were “mistakenly” included in their evidence, which they (originally) claimed provided proof of voter impersonation at the 2020 General and Regional Elections.”
Think about this, readers: This is their ace, and they are claiming, after fighting for it to be kept secret, that it was accidentally compromised. This kind of ‘dodging around’ is quite typical of APNU/AFC. I recall that it was there with their Statements of Poll (SoPs). They were so bent on making this esoteric that the law had to take effect to get them to lodge their SoPs, as they were not going to make them public, even though their claim was that therein lies the proof of their victory at the 2020 elections.
So, what should the public now make of Member of Parliament Roysdale Forde’s contention? He had firmly stated that the APNU+AFC, during the National Recount 2020, had objected to GECOM about the names of people who were reportedly marked as voting on Election Day but were out of the country. His claim was that APNU+AFC had submitted over 1,000 cases of “voter impersonation.” Yet the same Forde, in an almost recanting mode, sought to foist on all Guyana that persons were “mistakenly” included in their submissions to GECOM, and will be exhibited publicly, a situation APNU/AFC do not desire.
It gets even juicier! Editor, Forde had stated that the Opposition wanted the ‘evidence’ they submitted to be turned over to the Guyana Police Force and General Register Office for verification. So, ‘having no fear’ of the truth, the Attorney-General stated that those very documents will be investigated by the relevant agencies “…with requests that investigations be launched to verify the accuracy of the information contained in the documents.” But what? The Opposition-nominated Commissioners at GECOM opposed the request for these documents to be turned over to the Government and Police.
This is beyond contradiction on their behalf; it is beyond lying too, as I think this has to be insanity.
I can feel the trepidation increasing, as GECOM has already decided to hand over the documents (that purportedly provided ‘proof’ of voter fraud at the 2020 General and Regional Elections) for verification. This is what APNU/AFC wanted; this is what they are getting; yet, this is what is having them ‘shake in their boots.’
Editor, all Guyana is awaiting the work of the members of the Commission of Inquiry into the attempted rigging of the 2020 elections. Whether or not this will be concurrent with the legal issues on hand is irrelevant, as all of the findings will be used to hold persons accountable, especially if they are found to have been involved in illegal activities.
Yours truly,
H Singh