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Steps were being put in place to swear in Granger – Harmon

Mar 07, 2020 News

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), according to Joseph Harmon, was putting steps in place to swear in incumbent President David Granger, to the post once again, using the not completely verified results from the 2020 General and Regional Elections.
In a video statement to the public, Harmon, who currently serves as Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency, said that the results released by GECOM, place A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) in the lead.
Kaieteur News had reported nine statements by Returning Officers, save for Region Four’s Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo. Those figures had put the PPP/C in a comfortable lead.
Now, Harmon has said that all regions’ results are in.
GECOM’s Public Relations Officer, Yolanda Ward, later released results for both the General and Regional Elections of Region Four, which altogether indicate that APNU+AFC is comfortably in the lead.
The caveat is that the Region Four results have not been verified.
The other contesting political parties and the international and local observers have called for a verification of the figures.
The parties have since approached the Guyana Elections Commission for a recount of the District Four votes. At the same time, the PPP/C has secured an injunction halting the process leading to the swearing in of David Granger as president.
Nevertheless, Harmon said that he had expected that Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, would have been the next to declare the results. Then, he said, GECOM would have been holding a meeting to decide on the confirmation of the results.
After that, Harmon said that the statement would be sent to the Chancellor of the Judiciary, Yonette Cummings-Edwards, who would preside at the swearing in of the new President.
Harmon explained that the Commission should have met today to discuss the swearing in of the President, as decided by the electorate, and the necessary processes to predate that.
However, the PPP/C filed an injunction in the court to block that and any declaration of unverified results. The next step should have been a declaration by Lowenfield of the final result. But the declaration is going to be delayed.
Until the discharge of the injunction, GECOM will not confirm the results. But when it does, then the Chairman will send a statement to the Chancellor of the Judiciary to act to have the President sworn in.
Harmon had expected the Commission to meet today to conclude those processes. Harmon said that the coalition’s attorneys believe that the filing has a few defects.
Nevertheless, the Chair, Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh, decided to follow the court order on the injunction.
She decided that the procedure for the swearing in of the President would be put on hold until the parties go to Court to handle the injunction.
It is expected to be discharged today, according to Harmon.
The Coalition hopes that after this, the Commission would issue a statement to clear the way for Granger to be sworn in, despite the international community, observers and political agents signaling their opposition.
Harmon said that the situation should be handled swiftly, as public security depends on the swearing in of the new government, so that it could ensure order.
He added that the PPP/C is the intellectual author of the unrest witnessed today, and that calm must prevail.
He called upon the PPP/C leadership to exercise integrity, and not to let the country degenerate into physical strife.

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