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National election recount ‘illegal’ – AG Williams, Forde
…party will accept result – Anna Ally
Attorney General, Basil Williams, has claimed that the national recount exercise currently ongoing at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre is in fact illegal, a position supported by his fellow party member, attorney-at-law Roysdale Forde, SC.
PNCR’s General Secretary: Amna Ally
“Our law did not cater for a national recount,” Williams told reporters yesterday at the recount media center, at Liliendaal, on the Railway Embankment.
His position mirrors that of Guyana’s Chief Parliamentary Counsel, Charles Fung-a-Fat, who back in March, had advised the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) against drafting the recount order on the premise that it would be a breach of the Constitution of Guyana and the Representation of the People Act.
Forde, also speaking at the Conference Centre yesterday, sided with Williams on the view that the recount is not legitimate.
Both Williams’ and Forde’s position directly clash with the previous ruling from the Appeal Court and the provisions made by Guyana Elections Commission paving the way for the recount to commence, now in its 12th day.
Williams reiterated that “no law” makes provisions for the recount and pointed out that a winner for the March 2, 2020 general and regional elections cannot be declared from the figures emerging from that process.
APNU/AFC candidate: Roysdale Forde, SC
He told the press that “GECOM had to erect, build in roads for the purposes of this national recount because none exists”.
The Attorney-General noted that the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) of GECOM, Keith Lowenfield, has ten legal declarations in his possession. He argued that sole purpose of the recount is to examine the events on polling day, not to determine a winner.
“So far, it has shown clearly massive deficiencies on the part of the Opposition so much that one can conclude that they attempted to gerrymander the elections,” Williams said.
He pointed out that the ten previous declarations, including the controversial Region Four declarations by Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo, are still “valid and subsisting”.
Offering his opinion from a legal standpoint, Williams explained that Section 22 of the Election Laws Amendment Act enables GECOM to solve prospective problems in the conduct of the elections.
AG Basil Williams
He continued that results of the recount cannot automatically override the declarations currently being held in abeyance.
“Only an elections petition can discredit those results.”
But this view was not shared by Commissioner Vincent Alexander who had told reporters that the figures from the recount process “should automatically” be used to declare the winner of the elections.
In fact, General Secretary of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), Amna Ally, shared similar sentiments.
Hours after Basil Williams made his comments, Ally was asked whether the party would support the victors of the elections being chosen using the figures from the results.
To this she stated: “Most certainly! Whoever the Commission declares, so be it, that’s the person or the party.”
“Why would we object to it? We signed on, we wanted this,” Ally continued.
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