APNU/AFC to file elections petition on August 31 – Harmon

The A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition is set to file its elections petition on Monday, August 31, 2020. This petition challenges the results of the March 2 General and Regional Elections.

This was announced in a post on Thursday by Joseph Harmon, who served as the party’s Campaign Manager and an elections agent during elections.
“The petition will be filed on Monday 31st August, 10 am, supreme Court Building,” the social media post stated.
When contacted, Harmon confirmed that the petition is ready, before disconnecting the call, stating that he was in a meeting with the party’s leaders.
Moreover, in his Facebook post, Harmon called on party supporters to “mobilize in numbers to lend support to our party. We want a big manifestation against this persecution that is going on.”
However, many have come out bashing his move, especially given the fact that the emergency measures currently in place to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus here prohibit any public gathering in large numbers.

In recent weeks, the Guyana Government has embarked on a massive testing drive across the country, which has resulted in an increasingly high number of cases being detected. Currently, the country’s COVID-19 cases have exceeded 1,000, with over 30 deaths recorded to date.
Nevertheless, on Wednesday Harmon confirmed that he would be the new Opposition Leader when the 12th Parliament convenes next week. He said the party’s Members of Parliament have already agreed to have him serve in the post, and will formally nominate him at the upcoming parliamentary sitting scheduled for Monday.
On Thursday, the Coalition said in a missive that the Presumptive Opposition Leader has formally written to the Heads of several international organisations as well as diplomatic partners, outlining that “based on the vast amount of evidence” the APNU+AFC Coalition “believes, and intends to prove, that the elections held on March 2 lacked credibility and legitimacy”.
However, a national recount which was agreed to by former President David Granger and then Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo showed that the PPP/C secured 233,336 votes while the APNU/AFC obtained 217,920 votes – a difference of some 15,416 votes.
Despite the certified results of the national recount, the Coalition still insists on alleged voter irregularities, claiming dead and migrated persons had voted at the March polls.
But after five months of a series of litigation and delayed tactics, the PPP/C were finally declared winners of the March 2, 2020 elections by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and Dr Irfaan Ali was sworn in as Guyana’s 9th Executive President on August 2.
The Coalition had signalled its intention to file an elections petition – something which it was advised to do by the various courts in the many legal proceedings filed.
According to the National Assembly (Validity of Elections) Act, an election petition must be filed in the High Court within 28 days of the election results being declared and published in the Guyana Gazette under Section 99 of the Representation of the People Act.
Today marks 26 days since the declaration of the elections results. However, even as it moves to challenge the elections results, the APNU/AFC Coalition has been trying to keep its wits together since its defeat at the March polls.
In fact, the PNCR, which is the leading party in the APNU faction of the Coalition, has been embroiled in disunity and power struggles among its members. Reports are that senior members within the PNC are dissatisfied with the performance of current Leader and former President, David Granger. A few days ago, there was uproar over the APNU/AFC formulated list of Members of Parliament. The list was handpicked by Granger with little to no consultation within the coalition, and has been intensely criticised by party members.
Notably, PNCR stalwarts such as Chairwoman Volda Lawrence; the party’s General Secretary and Chief Whip in the 11th Parliament, Amna Ally; and former Attorney General Basil Williams were excluded from the Coalition’s list of MPs.
This sparked outrage among some party members, including former MP James Bond, who himself was also left out of the parliamentary list. Bond went on a tirade against Granger on social media. Bond criticised the PNC and its current leadership for not consulting with the party’s membership before making its decision on the parliamentarians.
The lawyer went further to blame Granger’s leadership for making the party lose the March 2 General and Regional Elections, as he threatened to rewrite the former President’s legacy and dismantle Granger’s “cabal.”
Following this, a former PNCR Executive Committee Member on Tuesday also wrote a stinging rebuke against the party leader, and blamed him for the current disunity and power struggle within the party.
According to that member, Lurlene Nestor, under Granger’s leadership, the party has been beset with power struggles; an aloof leader, who failed to reconnect with those who put him in power; and an unwillingness to accommodate criticism from within the party.
Meanwhile, the process for selecting the Parliamentary list was cited as one of the reasons why the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) broke away from the five-party APNU.
In fact, one of the partnership’s remaining four member parties: Justice For All Party (JFAP), has also said it is reconsidering its membership within the APNU after it was not allotted any parliamentary seat. During the five months in which the country was embroiled in a political and electoral impasse after the March 2 elections, the Chandra Narine Sharma-led JFAP had called on Granger and the Coalition to concede defeat and demit office.