“We will abide with Court’s ruling” – GECOM’s lawyer

Unlawful declaration by RO

…verification of SoPs will start today – GECOM

The attorney for the Guyana Elections Commission, Neil Boston, SC, has assured that his clients, Returning Officer (RO) for Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) Clairmont Mingo, Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield, and the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) will abide by Wednesday’s ruling of the High Court.

Acting Chief Justice Roxane George has ruled that Returning Officer for Region Four acted unlawfully when he declared unverified results for that district. She also ordered that GECOM cannot lawfully declare the results of the 2020 General and Regional Elections until the Returning Officer for Region Four complies with Section 84 of the Representation of the People Act and completes the verification process. An order was handed down for compliance to this to commence by 11:00h today.

Following the ruling, Boston told reporters that while they are disappointed by the Court’s decision, his clients will comply with the order.
Moreover, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of GECOM, Yolanda Ward, subsequently informed reporters that the Office for the Returning Officer, which is housed in the Commission’s Command Centre at the Ashmin’s Building on High and Hadfield Streets, will be opened at 09:30h today.

However, she noted that the process of verifying the Statements of Poll (SOPs) will begin at 11:00h as ordered by the court.
Asked whether the process will be restarted or resumed, which the Court said is at the discretion of the RO or Deputy RO, Ward indicated that the RO will advise on this today.

Consensus
People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Representative for Region Four and lead counsel in the concluded proceeding in the High Court, Anil Nandlall, told media operatives following Wednesday’s ruling that there is consensus among the majority of the parties that contested March 2 polls that the verification process should start from where they left off and not be redone.
“My personal preference would have been for [the RO] to resume where he left off because a lot of work was done and that did not evoke any controversy. So, I think all parties accepted the number of boxes that were verified so far. I hope that the Returning Officer resume rather than start all over again,” Nandlall posited.
According to Nandlall, with the entire country agonising and in a state of flux over these turns of events, it is anticipated that the CJ’s orders will be carried out on time with the aim of concluding the verification in the shortest time possible. In the same breath, however, he contended that the integrity of the process should not be sacrificed for speed.
“Once everything goes well, it should be completed with every convenient speed but I’m saying, again, that integrity and the thoroughness of the process must not be compromised at the altar of speed,” Nandlall asserted.
Further, he went on to note that while they are vindicated with the ruling, these court proceedings were unnecessary had the law and processes catered for been adhered to in the first place.
Several questions had been raised over the security of the 458 SOPs that are still to be verified after the process was abandoned last week. These crucial documents were left behind at the Office of the Region Four Returning Officer, in the GECOM Command Centre.
Only Sunday, Chairman of A New and United Guyana (ANUG) – one of the parties that contested last Monday’s polls – Attorney Timothy Jonas, had expressed concerns over the integrity of the documents. He explained that several parties’ agents and even observers had remained in the building on Thursday after RO Mingo declared the results without completing the verification process. But he noted that later that night, they were ousted from the Command Centre building by armed ranks from the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and they are unsure what happened to those unverified SOPs since.

Transparency and accountability
Meanwhile, Nandlall said on Wednesday that he hopes that political parties, as well as the electoral observers, are given the opportunity to be present during this process since provisions for this is there to ensure transparency and accountability in the process.
The Chief Justice, in her ruling, said it is up to the RO to determine how many persons be allowed the verification process.
To this end, Nandlall noted that “The purpose of all these exercises to ensure that the process is transparent and appears to be transparent and fair to the society and to the electorate. And no efforts should be spared to ensure that that transparency is there to dissipate and remove suspicions and mistrust which unfortunately cloud the atmosphere surrounding the process.”