The highest court in the land, the CCJ, has ruled on all the objections and issues that were raised by the PNC in our High and Appellate Courts to the events that followed the orderly and efficient elections of March 2. These incorporated the blatant manipulations by Reg 4 Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo in front of the world to the SOP’s that had him fraudulently adding votes to the APNU/AFC slate while reducing those of the PPPC. Even though Mingo was in contempt of court for not adhering to the legal requirements for his count, GECOM CEO Lowenfield used the fraudulent figures to submit a Report to the Commission. These, the Chairwoman held in “abeyance”.
A Recount of the entire country’s 2339 Ballot Boxes was agreed upon by the Caretaker President Granger and Opposition leader Jagdeo. The start of the Recount was interrupted so that an order (60 of 2020) could be gazetted to provide constitutional and statutory authority and would be conducted by officers of the GECOM Secretariat. The Recount confirmed that the SOP’s provided immediately after the elections by the PPPC and other parties were substantially accurate and that Mingo had committed fraud.
We do not have to follow the PNC’s labyrinthine manoeuvres through the court system – first the High Court, then the Court of Appeal and finally, the apex Caribbean Court of Appeal – in their desperate attempt to prevent a declaration by the Commission of the elections results based on the recount numbers. When the CCJ finally ruled that it was the recount numbers that should be used, the PNC fell back, as they had done in the beginning when they realised they were losing the elections, to using a strategically placed loyalist in the GECOM Secretariat to throw a spanner into the works. Then it was Mingo, on Saturday, it was Lowenfield.
Instructed by the Chair, who utilised the legal reasoning and constitutional and statutory authorities cited by the CCJ, Lowenfield was supposed to present his Report. This he refused to do, at a meeting which the govt Commissioners did not attend, replying instead that he needed “clarification” on several points in the instructions. These points had already been litigated and pronounced on by the CCJ and he was told that the directions needed no gloss, and he should proceed as originally instructed. Lowenfield yesterday submitted his Report using the fraudulent Mingo numbers, which had been exposed as such, by the recount. These numbers show the APNU/AFC as winning the elections. This is the “eye pass”.
What is ahead? The GECOM Chair has already scheduled a meeting for tomorrow morning at 11 am. Even if the Govt Commissioners do not attend the three Opposition Commissioners and the Chair would constitute a quorum which could then consider the CEO’s report which is “advisory”, reject it and then take judicial notice of the Certificates of Recount that had been designated by the CCJ as certifying the valid votes cast, to make their declaration. The recount showed the PPP winning by over 15,000 votes. his is the decision of the people of Guyana in accordance with Art 9 of our Constitution, the supreme law of our land: “Sovereignty belongs to the people, who exercise it through their representatives and the democratic organs established by or under this Constitution.
After the declaration by the Chair, however, the Chancellor must swear in the PPPC’s candidate Dr Irfaan Ali.
