Govt. backs away from holding CoI into 2020 elections

Jun 03, 2022 News

– Jagdeo claims alleged “riggers” will not participate

…Article 13 says citizens must hear testimonies for themselves

By Zena Henry

Following the contentious 2020 General and Regional election, President Irfaan Ali committed to having a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the actions that led to accusations of rigging and eventually the prosecuting several persons.

VP Bharrat Jagdeo speaking to reporters sometime during the 2020 election events

Some two years later, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has indicated that this is not the route the government wishes to take at this time. During a press conference at Office of the President last Monday, Jagdeo told the Kaieteur News that the government actually wanted to conduct the CoI, but ran into some difficulty when court cases were filed against “key figures.” He explained that the government was advised by “a lot of people” that those charged for election skullduggery would not want to participate in the CoI by claiming that their responses would incriminate them in court.
He said that those charged for the 2020 events are some of the central figures in any COI. “And when they are charged, as their defense, they will say I don’t want to appear at the COI, [that] whatever I say there will incriminate me in the court case. So, you may lose the key figures that are in charge of the rigging…,” Jagdeo opined. He submitted that since the possibility of non-participation or non-corporation by the “key figures” exists, it is the government’s rationale for not holding the CoI.
On the matter of rigging accusations by both the government and the opposition, Jagdeo said that the governing People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has already put forward its Statement of Polls (SoPS); while the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) has not done so.
Jagdeo said nonetheless that it still needs to be proven where (Region 4 Returning Officer (RO), Clairmont) Mingo got the numbers that showed a victory for the Coalition. “But Mingo will not be able to tell the people at the CoI since he would say he is not coming there because he has a court case filed against him,” Jagdeo assumed. He said, and if Mingo does not say where he got the figures, then it would be unclear how former Health Minister, Volda Lawrence’s signature ended up on the RO report.
Given the number of unanswered questions such as the ones put forward by the Vice President, Article 13 member Dr. Yog Mahadeo has reiterated the serious need for the CoI to be conducted. He told the Kaieteur News that the VP, and by extension the government, “cannot be judge and jury in determining beforehand that persons will not want to speak [at the CoI] for fear of incriminating themselves.” The civil rights activist submitted that the holding of the CoI would be the only way to truly ascertain what the behaviour of those involved would be. The CoI would also shed some light as to whether those persons still at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is fit and proper to hold their offices by virtue of what they say or do not say.
Additionally, Dr. Mahadeo noted, legal advice on the particular matter highlights that the VP need not make such announcements since the CoI could have persons subpoenaed. “The public deserves better,” where answers into the 2020 fiasco is concerned, Dr. Mahadeo urged. He said that the CoI will provide the answers into an $8B question since that was the amount of money spent on the 2020 polls. He said all that money which derived from taxpayers was spent on an election that was tampered with, and at this point, citizens must understand what went wrong so that the relevant loops could be exposed and addressed.
Dr. Mahadeo is in full support of the 2020 CoI. He insisted that it should be a government mandate to inform the citizens as to what happened during the election; not to just say the guilty persons will not want to testify. Dr. Mahadeo is currently working on letters to dispatch to the international missions that played an oversight role in the 2020 elections. “Guardians of democracy” was the title bestowed on persons the government recognized for preventing the rigging of the 2020 election. Dr. Mahadeo is hoping to have those said missions now raise their voices in support of a CoI into the unwanted events.
GECOM as an independent organisation can commission its own election inquiry. Opposition commissioners alleged that this position was adopted in principle by the Commission but was said to be overtaken by other events within the Commission. Without any commitment however, the VP offered that the CoI could still be pursued.

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