Next Steps towards Swearing in

Jun 18, 2020 News

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By Ruel Johnson

On Tuesday, GECOM Chair Claudette Singh directed Chief Election Officer, Keith Lowenfield to prepare and submit a report “pursuant to article 177(2)(b) of the Constitution and Section 96 of the Representation of the People Act Chapter 1:03’.

That single instruction was the final act triggering a series of steps that will lead us to the swearing in of Irfaan Ali as the 9th Executive President of Guyana. The list that preceded him consists of, in consecutive order: Forbes Burnham; Desmond Hoyte; Cheddi Jagan; Samuel Hinds; Janet Jagan; Bharrat Jagdeo; Donald Ramotar and de facto current president, David Granger.

Today at 1 pm is the deadline that Lowenfield has to submit that report. In our article, below, Kaieteur News outlines the next steps ahead.

Step One – The CEO’s Report

In her letter to Lowenfield, Chairwoman Singh asks that the GECOM CEO prepare his report “using the results of the recount”, one that is in keeping with Section 96 of the Representation of the People Act.”
This is what section 96 of the Act says:

“96(1). The Chief Election Officer shall, calculating the total number of valid votes of electors which have been cast for each list of candidates, on the basis of the votes counted and information furnished by returning officers under section 84(11), ascertain the result of the election in accordance with sections 97 and 98.

(2) The Chief Election Officer shall prepare a report manually and in electronic form in terms of section 99 for the benefit of the Commission, which shall be the basis for the Commission to declare and publish the results under section 99.”
What this means, is that this is a simple arithmetical issue in which he applies a pre-established formula to the valid votes cast, as established by the recount in order to allocate both parliamentary (general) and regional democratic council (regional) seats.

There has been deliberate misinformation as to what the numbers will be on this report, with reference being made to the alternate figures Lowenfield had offered in his previous submission made last weekend. The argument has been offered that the CEO’s opinion on what constitutes a valid vote, based exclusively on the unsubstantiated claims made by APNU+AFC, can be used as the basis for declaring the election. This is wrong.

The establishment of valid votes has already been established by virtue of the certified tabulations of each region as signed off by competing parties during the recount process. It is these votes that Lowenfield has to report on and this constitutes his advice as defined in Article 177 of the Constitution.

Step Two – Consideration by the Commission

Article 177 speaks to what happens “… after such advice has been tendered to the Elections Commission at a duly summoned meeting.” Step Two of what happens next has to do with that meeting.

With the CEO compelled to deliver his report, the Commission meets either today or tomorrow latest for that “duly summoned meeting” to review and deliberate upon that report. They will examine it for compliance with the relevant legislation and, more importantly, for accuracy in the calculations.

Here the political nature of the appointments of the commissioners is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, partisan vigilance can result in preventing deliberate miscalculation of seat allocations – for example, in the 2011 elections, government-nominated Commissioner, Vincent Alexander, had highlighted a miscalculation in the seat allocations by then Chief Elections Officer, Gocool Boodhoo. Boodhoo’s initial calculation would have awarded an extra seat to the PPP at the expense of the Alliance For Change (AFC). If Boodhoo’s error, which Alexander has said was intentional, was allowed to stand, not only would the AFC have gotten only six instead of seven seats, but that one seat would have been enough to assure the PPP a parliamentary majority. Instead, the AFC was given its full complement of seats and the PPP was, for the first time in twenty years, denied a parliamentary majority with the combined opposition gaining 33 seats.

On the other hand, an absence of representation on the Commission means that such vigilance is not necessarily extended to non-represented parties. In 2006, Boodhoo reportedly made a similar ‘error’ with an AFC seat in Region 10, wherein the calculation gave the seat to the PPP. With no representation on the Commission and that being the party’s first election, the error was only noted after the declaration.

Step Three – Declaration by the Chair

After the deliberation by the Commission, the Chair is then required to make the declaration in favour of the Presidential Candidate whose list has gotten more votes than any other list, according to Article 177 of the Constitution. In the case of the 2020 elections, the candidate whose list has secured the most valid votes, according to the certified tabulations of the recount, is Irfaan Ali.

The PPP has been calling Ali “President-Elect” but he is not yet technically so since it is only after the Chair’s declaration, he becomes effectively the President of Guyana, or the President-elect. That said, there is no legal barrier currently that stands in his way, the tabulated results, having been certified, showing him as 15,000 votes ahead of the incumbent. Granger still remains the de facto President, however, meaning that for the short time between declaration and swearing in, Guyana will have two Presidents.

Step Four

The next step is the swearing in, in keeping with Section 97(1) of the Representation of the People Act. This section reads:

“A person elected as President shall assume the office of President upon being elected but shall, before entering upon the duties of the office, take and subscribe the oath of office, such oath being administered by the Chancellor or such other Judge of the Supreme Court of Judicature as may be designated by the Chancellor.”

This is when Ali will become the President with full powers afforded to him. When Ali is sworn in, David Granger will no longer be President and all his ministers, as a consequence, no longer ministers.

While there is no prescribed time between declaration and swearing in, the precedent is usually a matter of hours. For example, in 2015, the elections were held on May 11, with David Granger being sworn in as President on May 16, the same day that the results were declared. With the CEO report to be completed today, Guyana should have a new President sworn in before the new week, if not some time tonight, depending on when the meeting at step 3 is held and the declaration coming out of it is made.

 

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