Despite Harmon’s ultimatum, the Coalition has no direct say in the running of GECOM

Jun 05, 2020 Letters

Dear Editor,

Today (4th June, 2020), I listened to a press conference with Joseph Harmon where he was asked at the end how confident is the Coalition that GECOM will address the (alleged but unproven) irregularities which the APNU-AFC has claimed; Harmon responded that they are demanding that GECOM address them by tomorrow (Friday 5th June, 2020) and that if GECOM does not address their demands then they “will go and meet with them and insist that our demands are met.” Effectively, Harmon is saying that if they do not get what they want, they will go and pay GECOM a visit and see that it happens. Well, for a government and political outfit, which constantly maintains that they have not interfered with the electoral process or with GECOM, this sounds very much as an attempt or possibly a threat to do exactly that. Since Harmon may have forgotten despite their constant chorus, GECOM is an autonomous Constitutional Commission which is not subject to the demands of any political party let alone the “insistence” thereof even in circumstances where there is an attempt to strong-arm demands by unwarranted or unsolicited “visits”. In fact, I would invite Harmon to read Art. 161B of the Constitution, which specifically prohibits the role of political parties and their nominees in the management of the electoral process. Fortunately for Harmon and the Coalition, there is an avenue to address their alleged but unproven irregularities and that is through an elections petition after a declaration of a winner is made which, incidentally, GECOM is required to do (See Art 177 where GECOM is required to declare a winner even when there is a tie). This is, in fact, the only legally prescribed avenue to address any of those alleged but unproven allegations (See Art. 163 of the Constitution and S.140 of the Representation of the People Act CAP 1:03). GECOM knows this and since Harmon is an Attorney-at-Law, I am sure he knows this as well. Nonetheless, should the Coalition require any further elucidation on the point, I would direct their attention to the recent Court of Appeal decision in the Ulita Moore matter in which their political acolyte would have appeared.

Yours truly,
Charles Ramson

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