Opposition mulls formal motion in pursuit of review of 2020 elections

Jun 17, 2022 News

By Zena Henry

Kaieteur News – Opposition Commissioners at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) are not backing down from their call to have a review of the controversial 2020 elections commissioned. Vincent Alexander who represents the former Coalition government, is now considering a formal motion to be laid to have the GECOM look at its procedures, and other areas where things went wrong to cause a five -month delay in declaring an election winner.

GECOM Commissioner, Vincent Alexander

Alexander told the Kaieteur News that Chairwoman Justice (retired) Claudette Singh had agreed “in principle” to the proposal that was made earlier this year to have an internal review of GECOM’s systems. Now he said, she has declared that, “the only review that is permissible is a discussion of the CEO’s (Chief Executive Officer) report.”
Alexander noted however, that the Opposition’s request for a review never entailed one consisting judicial procedures. “We never requested a review that would be equivalent to a judicial review and that is what she ruled against,” Alexander clarified. He told the newspaper that what was requested was a “simple review” by GECOM of its systems and procedures, which would highlight any inconsistencies and areas to be strengthened. This review, Alexander noted would lend support to any reform of the Representation of the Peoples Act (RoPA).

Chairperson of GECOM, Justice Claudette Singh

As such, Alexander said, “I am looking at the option of a formal motion.” The GECOM Commissioner indicated that he is lost as to why GECOM would not want to have a review, and why as an independent body, it would not want to delve deeper into its own affairs. “Remember even (President) Irfaan (Ali) promised one,” Alexander reminded. He said he has nonetheless reserved the right of a written response after the Chair makes her written ruling on the review available.
At his press conference Wednesday last, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo again questioned the need for a review of the 2020 elections given that the “riggers” are no longer around. At his previous press conference, the VP said that a Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the 2020 election fiasco is not the route the government wished at this time since the matter is before the court and that “key figures,”, “a lot of people” charged for election skullduggery would not want to participate in the CoI by claiming that their responses would incriminate them in court. “…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…,” the VP had stated.

Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo

However, like the GECOM chairperson, Jagdeo has also declared that it would be the CEO’s report that would take centre stage in the review. He said that, “the same people who were at the centre of the rigging controversy at GECOM suddenly are the ones who want a review. And I think the people are right to say what are you gonna review now. You have to review a report from the CEO. So, you gonna take (former CEO Keith) Lowenfield …the guy who tried to disenfranchise on his own 175,000 (People’s Progressive Party) PPP supporters… by certifying an election and numbers that he knew were wrong because he had the original SOPs which he supplied to the Chief Justice…the same person who got 200 acres of land at Millie’s Hideout when the people in Linden couldn’t get a quarter of an acre to build a house on. And you’re gonna ask him to do a report now. He’s already gone, who is gonna prepare this report and the other would-be riggers are out too. And they are before the court. What are you gonna ask him to do, prepare a report to say he did a great job and review that? It is nonsense,” the Vice President stated.
Support for RoPA
He added too that the opposition trying to link the 2020 election review with support for the RoPA amendment is them trying to “kill any opportunity to improve the framework for holding elections.” The government’s proposal to the RoPA amendment included numerous procedures to be followed by presiding officers and others after the counting of votes at polling stations such as making public Statement of Polls (SOP) on polling stations after counting and the publishing of SOPs before counting at GECOM among others. To this, Alexander had said that these proposals were functions already done administratively by GECOM. He added that some of the proposals offered by the government to be made law also restricts the Commission’s flexibility in conducting elections.
Almost all small parties who contested the 2020 elections as recent as last week declared their support for the holding of the elections review. They told this newspaper that GECOM should have had its own review to ascertain the loopholes in its systems. Civil Society group Article 13 is writing to the international community to have them lend their voice to the COI call as they played a vital role in 2020 to ensure the conduct of a clean election. Article 13 is saying that allegations were made against both main political parties. For example, the Region 4 Returning Officer is accused of instructing staff to omit supporting documents from the ballot box while the now Attorney General was accused of handing out identification cards on the East Coast to name a few. To get the bottom of the 2020 fiasco, the civil group says persons should be given a chance to provide their evidence and give their statements for GECOM to check itself.