Sanctions needed against those delaying elections’ declaration – Shuman

The international community should immediately impose sanctions against those who are currently trying to delay the declaration of the elections held more than four months ago.

This is according to Lenox Shuman, the Leader of the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) – one of the newer political groupings that contested in the March 2 elections.
“Let’s start to see some sanctions on some of these people. Let’s bring it to bear,” Shuman said during a virtual update on his Facebook page on Thursday.
“I hope there is very strong sanctions since the words seem not to be registering with these people. It needs to be followed up by actions right now and I would urge our international partners to take a close look at this and see if it is warranted,” the LJP Leader posited.
Shuman’s statement came on the heels of the postponement of Thursday’s meeting at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), which would have paved the way for the anticipated declaration of the final elections results.
The meeting was postponed after the three Government-nominated Commissioners requested time to study the ruling of the Caribbean Court of Justice.
On Wednesday, the regional court invalidated the Appeal Court’s ruling and the fraudulent report submitted last month by Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, who disenfranchised over 115,000 voters.
The CCJ had stated that it is for GECOM to ensure that the CEO submits a report in accordance with the Chair’s directives, that is, it should be based on the figures emanating from the National Recount.
The 33-day exercise confirmed that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) won the March 2 elections with 233,336 votes while the caretaker APNU/AFC coalition obtained 217,920 votes – a difference of 15,416 votes.
To this end, Shuman called out the coalition for allowing Guyanese to continue to suffer.
“The country can only go through this torment for so long. Even though the court has ruled, [caretaker President David] Granger has always said he has abided by the Court’s ruling. There are reasons why people in the international community call him “sanctimonious gangster”. It is because he says one thing and does completely the opposite. He has the proclivity of doing exact the opposite of obeying the court ruling and the Constitution,” Shuman contended.
Following the postponement of the meeting on Thursday, the CEO was instructed to submit a report by 14:00h on Friday using the recount results.
Instead of so doing, he presented a letter, claiming that he needed clarity.
The GECOM Chairwoman has since given him until 11:00h today to submit the final elections report.