“I panicked, I became very much afraid”

Dec 09, 2022 News

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– GECOM Chair says as recounts the storming of Ashmins Building during elections chaos    

By Rehanna Ramsay  

Kaieteur News – Chairperson of the Guyana elections Commission GECOM, Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh recalled feeling very stressed, and overwhelmed by a series of events that plunged the holding March 2, 2020 Regional and General Elections into complete chaos.

Justice Singh was called to the witness stand on Thursday to testify in the Commission of Inquiry established to 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 vote duty under the relative sections of the RoPA, and whether any attempts were made to prevent ‘the declaration of the true results’ of votes polled for electoral District Four.

The GECOM Chairperson faced a series of questions as it relate to how she responded to the mayhem that followed after the holding of the elections. Despite her supervisory role and functions as Chair of GECOM, Justice Singh told the Inquiry being chaired by Justice of the Appeal (retired) of Turks and Caicos Stanley John, and include former Chancellor of the Judiciary (Guyana), Carl Singh, and High Court Judge (Belize) and former Justice of Appeal (ag) in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, Godfrey P. Smith, that she was for the most of time, not informed of the decisions taken by the Officers of the Commission in relation to the outcome of the Regional and General elections.

For instance, the GECOM Chair said that she was in meetings with several of the Commissioners, when she was told Ms Bibi Shadick, a PPP/C nominated Elections Commissioner that Mr. Clairmont Mingo, Region Four Returning Officer had diverted from using the Statements of Poll (SOPs) to using spreadsheets in the tabulation process. Justice Singh said that she was talking to the then Canadian High Commissioner to Guyana, Ms. Lillian Chatterjee, when she learnt that Mr. Mingo moved forward with announcing the result of the Region Four polls.  The Chair said that this was while tabulation process was still in process.

“Everyone ran out of the room because this was something unheard of, and nobody thought that would have happened because the counting was going on,” Justice Singh said.

The GECOM Chair was grilled nevertheless by the Commissioners about her response to all that unfolded at the time.  The Commissioners appeared to have a difficulty with Justice Singh’s responses. Former Justice of Appeal in the Eastern Caribbean Court, Senior Counsel Godfrey Smith, said that he found Justice Singh’s decision to abandon her post at a critical juncture in the elections, “odd.”  She had told Commissioners that as the events unfolded, she became seriously stressed.

She said that she was feeling unwell, locked herself in her room away from everyone and stopped answering her phone. “I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I needed a minute to process everything and to breathe … So I wasn’t talking to anyone or taking any calls,” she added. “To say you couldn’t be bothered seems odd because you are the Chair and you are in the middle of a very serious situation. I simply want to know, at that point did you call other Commissioners, and say look, I am feeling stressed, let’s meet together and weather the storm, I am not taking this on my own. Did that occur to you or you just preferred to shut yourself away?” Commissioner Smith questioned.

In response, the GECOM Chairman explained, “I felt a little dizzy. I wasn’t feeling well and there were so many things on my mind, and I was actually shaking, You see with the declaration, there was an injunction filed by Mr. Nandlall then against the declaration, and there were so many things on my mind, and I wanted to know what to do, the next step. So, I just couldn’t be bothered with anybody. I went up there, just to have a quiet moment.”

The retired Judge noted too that she decided to lock herself in the room was against the advice of her security detail, who believed that she should have instead taken a break from the building. She testified that she wanted some quiet time to gather her thoughts. She stressed: “I didn’t want to speak with anybody. I just wanted time; I felt a little dizzy, and I just wanted to be by myself,” Justice (Ret’d) Singh said, while noting that she didn’t know who to trust. She said she also felt overwhelmed with several phone calls to her mobile phones. Those calls came from officials in and out of Guyana, including from the Secretary General of the Commonwealth and a number of local Diplomatic representatives.

The GECOM Chairman said however while she sat in the room, she heard a loud commotion outside. Justice Singh said it sounded as though an angry group was coming up the stairs to break down the door. She said, “I heard footsteps and chants, I want the Chairman! I want the Chairman!”

She said, “I panicked. I became very much afraid, and I said look, and I dialed Ms. Amna Ally [former Government Minister] and I called her because I was afraid for my life; I thought people were coming to harm me…and she told me that she would be calling someone.”

She further detailed that she remained inside until the door was forcibly opened that she recognised some of the persons on the outside. The GECOM Chairman said that when the door opened she recognised Dr. Josh Kanhai, one the political party candidates and a Police Inspector. Singh said “I was relieved that it was not anyone to harm me because Dr. Kanhai asked me if I was ok.”

She said that she eventually left the building.

She also testified too that prior to this, she had told the Returning Officer for Region Four (Mingo) that the tabulation should take place from the Statements of Poll and not the spreadsheet. She said that Mingo still attempted to do so. The GECOM Chair said there were several hurdles that the Commission faced before the results could be declared.

She said following Court action and after the recount, she faced another hurdle with getting the Chief Elections Officer to present a report with the results from the recount. The GECOM Chair said she was forced to send him a number of letters, but indicated that he could not be disciplined at the time since the entire Commission just wanted the results to be presented, which he eventually did. He was later fired by GECOM.

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