GECOM releases “verified” and APNU+AFC data on absent, deceased 2020 voters—commissioners 

Sep 09, 2022 News

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By Zena Henry

Kaieteur News – The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has released two sets of data pertaining to the allegation of voter fraud at the 2020 General Elections.

A request was made by the governing People’s Progressive Party (PPP) government to receive the data presented by the former A Partnership for National Unity +Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) government alleging the inconsistencies at the 2020 polls. A majority decision was thus taken at GECOM’s statutory meeting Tuesday, to have those documents handed over, as well as information “verifying” the data from the relevant state agencies such as the Guyana Registration Office (GRO) and the Immigration Office. Additionally, the information was not only released to the government, but the opposition as well, representatives of both sides have confirmed.

Opposition Commissioner Vincent Alexander told the Kaieteur News yesterday that what Attorney General (AG) Anil Nandlall requested from GECOM were the names of persons presented to GECOM by former Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon during the recount of the 2020 elections. He explained that Harmon during the 2020 recount extracted names and sent to GECOM. “We (GECOM) then sent those names to the immigration office and they then sent back saying these are the things that they have checked and these are the persons that were out of the country.”

Alexander continued that the AG did not request the information from the statutory bodies, but that which was provided by Harmon. He claimed that, “they were not focused on the information from immigration which prima facie says; here are people that were out of the country but voted.” He said nonetheless, that a discussion was held since the opposition commissioners objected to the information being released to government without an in-house discourse. He said that despite the government requesting Harmon’s information, it was decided that the information from the statutory agencies would also be released. “So, they (GECOM) decided to send Harmon’s information, we voted against that. And then we said if you’re sending Harmon’s own send all,” Alexander said. He pointed out that it was put to the Commission that the information to the government should also go to the opposition side which was agreed upon and released to all sides.

Given the information alleging voter fraud, Alexander was asked why no move was made by the Commission to address the issue. He explained that when the information was received from the state agencies, government commissioners voted against anything being done with the document. The Chairwoman, he alleged, also responded by saying, “matters like those have to be in a petition, it’s not a matter for GECOM to determine.”

Alexander noted therefore, that notwithstanding this position by GECOM, the AG is now saying that he wants to investigate this information. He questioned that even as the chairwoman would have stated that the information is for an elections petition, “why would she have sent for it to be verified if at that time she had no intention of using it. It doesn’t make sense to start a process without going to its ultimate conclusion,” Alexander opined.

When asked about the properness of the GECOM releasing the information requested, Alexander said that the agency was under no obligation to provide the information. “In fact,” he told the publication, “the information (provided to the government) is part of the (election) petition, and if there is a petition with the information, then anything pertaining to the petition is sub judice and shouldn’t be commented on in public.” He opined therefore that the Commission is in fact in breach of the rule of sub-judice.

Government Commissioner Sase Gunraj also confirmed that both sets of information were released on request of the government. In providing a “quick background,” to the matter, he said that during the 2020 recount, the opposition made allegations that dead and migrated persons had voted. He said that a list of those persons was provided by GECOM, and the “GECOM chair took the opportunity to send it to the GRO to figure out if these people were in fact dead and to immigration to find out if these people were in fact out of the country.” Gunraj continued that a report was received and deliberated on. “We said that notwithstanding the receipt of that (statutory) report, it is not within the remit of GECOM to consider that report; GECOM does not have the powers of investigation, so we did nothing with it that was the end of that matter.”

Gunraj made it clear that he did not see the information from GRO and others as a verification of the information. “In my humble opinion, the information was passed to two statutory agencies and we received a response there from,” he said. He reiterated however, that having received the response from the agency, the commission decided it did not have the legal authority to interrogate the responses because that is within the domain of the court.

The AG nonetheless wrote to GECOM requesting the information and after very long, hard discussions, documents were to be released. “A clarification was made by a commissioner on the other side requesting that if documents were going to be released, let all of it be released…” He claimed however that it was the AG who requested, “That the information supplied be Harmon be released along with the responses received from the statutory agencies…” for the information to be released as a collective.

The Attorney in his letter to GECOM had stated however that “grave allegations” were made in the 2020 elections about voter fraud. He said that “… as baseless and unfounded as they (allegations) were proven to be, it is important that the relevant state agency enquires into the source of this information, upon whose directions they were sourced, and perhaps, most importantly, to reconfirm their inaccuracy, for the public record”

 

 

 

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