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Norton pours cold water on elections COI
– says focus should be on petitions before court
Kaieteur News – Leader of the Opposition Aubrey Norton is of the view that the Commission of Inquiry (COI) which has been set up by Government to inquire into the issues surrounding the March 2020 Regional and General Elections is nothing but a ploy to hoodwink Guyanese.
He said that citizens should therefore focus on just the outcome of the elections petitions which are before the Courts. During his weekly press briefing held on Tuesday, Norton responded to questions about the COI. He asserted that the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) cannot be trusted to organise an inquiry to unearth the truth about the controversial March 2020 elections.
Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton
Norton said this is a sharp conflict of interest at work here. According to him, a Government that is a party to the elections should not be choosing anyone to conduct a COI into the election. He asserted, “this is a case of charging Caesar to be tried by Caesar! It is this very Government that was shouting from the top of St George’s Cathedral that the way to go is by the Elections Petitions….”
The Opposition Leader continued “So to us the COI is just another attempt by the People’s Progressive Party Civic [PPP/C] to browbeat the Guyanese public and to produce information that suits the PPP so that they can open their mouths and make all kinds of conclusions. Clearly, it is the Election Petition that matters and we will focus on the elections petition.”
Both main political parties, the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) and the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) have accused each other of electoral fraud. For the most part, the PPP/C is saying that it was the coalition that attempted to alter the results of the elections. The COI into the 2020 election fiasco that caused a five-month long delay in declaring Guyana’s new government is set to zoom in on the conduct of former Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) officers, some of whom are before the court on election fraud charges. This is highlighted in the Terms of Reference (ToRs) set out in the probe that was promised by President Irfaan Ali after his party was finally declared winner of the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections.
So far, retired Trinidad and Tobago Judge, Stanley John, who is the Chairman of the Commission, retired Acting Chancellor of the Judiciary of Guyana, Justice Carl Singh and former Acting Justice of Appeal in the Eastern Caribbean, Senior Counsel Godfrey Smith have been sworn in to their positions.
The ToR for the presidential CoI notes however that the Commission will, among other things, examine, “the conduct of the Chief Elections Officer, other Elections Officers, and others in respect of the discharge and execution of the statutory duties of the Chief Elections Officer prescribed by section 96 and 97 of the Representation of the People Act (RoPA) Chap. 1:03.” The Commissioners will also look into the conduct of the Returning Officer of electoral District No. 4 and other elections officers in execution of their tabulation and declaration of votes duty, under the relevant sections of the RoPA, and whether any attempts were made to prevent “the declaration of the true results” of votes polled for electoral District No. 4. The Commission will also examine whether any attempts were made to “obstruct, frustrate, subvert and prevent a decision of the Guyana Elections Commission made on the 14th day of March, 2020, to conduct a national recount of the votes polled at the General and Regional elections”, of March 2, and if so, by whom.
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