Chair asserts commitment to court to conduct full recount

…dismisses APNU/AFC’s motion to consider flawed elections results

Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chairperson, Retired Justice Claudette Singh on Thursday used her casting vote and threw out a motion brought by Government-nominated Commissioner Vincent Alexander for the seven-member Commission to, among other things, go ahead and consider the final report of the Chief Elections Officer (CEO), which contains the contentious results from the Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) district.

A statement from GECOM noted that the Chair explained during the meeting that she could not allow the CEO, Keith Lowenfield, to present his report at this point in time since a contempt motion brought by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) restrains her from so doing. She sought to remind the Commission members too that she had also given an undertaking to the court to facilitate a recount at the level of the seven-member body.

“… [Justice Singh] explained that the contempt matter brought against her has not concluded, but has been shelved due to her giving an undertaking to conduct a full national recount of all votes cast in the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections at the level of the Commission. In light of the foregoing, Justice Singh requested for the Commission to discuss the possibility of the recount within the framework of the law,” the GECOM missive detailed.

The GECOM missive noted that the meeting was adjourned to 10:00h today following a request by Government Commissioner Charles Corbin to seek legal guidance on the matter. An earlier suggestion by Corbin for the Commission to approach the court on the way forward, given varying legal advice, was also dismissed.
While no decision was taken on the way forward, it is expected that a decision will be taken at today’s meeting and there seems to be a consensus to have the recount done.
In fact, Opposition-nominated Commissioner Sase Gunraj told reporters that he expected today’s meeting to deal with the recount.
“When it is commencing and finetuning the modalities for operationalising [the recount],” he posited.
Gunraj further noted that he has already prepared a list of suggestions, including health precautions in light of the COVID-19 pandemic to be taken during the recounting process, and was waiting to present it to the Commission.
Earlier on Thursday, during the morning session of the GECOM meeting, Opposition Commissioner Robeson Benn had tabled a motion for the Commission to move ahead with the recount, but this was later withdrawn.
The Opposition-nominated Commissioners contended that GECOM had already approved having a recount supervised by the Caribbean Community (Caricom) and there was nothing that precluded the Commission from moving ahead in this regard now that the court has paved the way for it to finalise its deliberation on conducting the recount.
“The Chairman, and this is to her credit… she has given, this morning and this afternoon, detailed reasons for her position in relation to this matter, because she has given an undertaking to the court and she has narrated over and over, the circumstances that led to her making that decision [for the recount],” Gunraj stated.
Meanwhile, even after bringing the motion to sideline the national recount, Commissioner Alexander told reporters that he would support a recount. “…I would certainly be disposed to voting for a motion for the recount,” the Government-nominated Commissioner posited, adding that “in the meantime, the CEO has been asked to start to address his mind to the question of the procedures that can be employed if we are to undertake a recount, and so that should be reported on tomorrow”.
According to Alexander, the return of the Caricom team to supervise the recount would be a “good way to go.”
Following the contentious declaration of Region Four’s results by embattled Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo on March 13, Caricom Chair, Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley had intervened and brokered a national recount, which was requested by President David Granger and agreed to by Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo.
A five-member independent high-level team was deployed to Guyana on March 15. Two days later, the regional team was forced to withdraw its services after an A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) candidate, Ulita Moore, had obtained an injunction from the High Court, blocking GECOM from commencing the recounting process.
On Tuesday, acting Chief Justice Roxane George, who presided in the Full Court along with Justice Nareshwar Harnanan, ruled that the Court has no jurisdiction to hear the application filed by Moore.
The Full Court took into account the fact that the GECOM Chair had given a public undertaking that the votes would be recounted to ensure that the results of the polls were credible and accepted by the various stakeholders.
As such, the interim injunction blocking the recount has since been discharged, paving the way for GECOM to go ahead with the process.
However, Moore’s lawyers have since appealed the Full Court ruling, and that matter is currently pending in the Appeals Court.
The now dismissed motion brought by Alexander had also sought to have the Elections Commission await this decision by the Appeals Court before deciding on a way forward.
Several local and international observers, as well as Governments, have denounced the declarations made by RO Mingo, citing them as lacking credibility.