Dear Editor,
Chief Justice Roxane George on Monday ruled that the results of the national vote recount must be used to declare the results of the March 2 elections; she also ruled that the country’s Chief Elections Officer is not a “lone ranger” or a law unto his own and must do as he is directed by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). The Chief Justice first ruled that she had the power to hear and determine the case because the issue that needed to be resolved was whether officials of GECOM, namely the Chair of GECOM and the Chief Elections Officer, were acting lawfully. Justice George then ruled that the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) endorsed the national vote recount. This simply means that Keith Lowenfield must prepare a report of the national vote recount that accurately represents a victory for the Opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and not APNU/AFC as he had done before using figures that were deemed to be fraudulent. The Chief Justice found that the national vote recount overtook the original vote count and so any declarations made before were correctly set aside by Justice Claudette Singh, the Chair of GECOM. The “only” data must be the recount result and the previous ten declarations cannot be “resurrected”.
Sincerely,
David Adams
