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Nandlall recounts legal battles, other alleged attempts to derail 2020 elections
Kaieteur News – Attorney General (AG) Anil Nandlall SC recalled the lengthy legal battles that marred the holding and the subsequent final results of the 2020 Regional and General Elections.
AG Nandlall made this disclosure when he took the stand in the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the national poll on Thursday. During his testimony, Nandlall referenced the court case challenging the no-confidence motion brought against the then A Partnership for National Unity +Alliance For Change Government as well as the matter against the unilateral appointment made by Former President David Granger of chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission Ret’d Justice James Patterson.
Attorney General Anil Nandlall
The Attorney General noted that both cases ended up at the Caribbean Court of Justice in Trinidad where they were resolved. He went added that similar court cases were filed by the political opposition once the election got underway. He claimed that he witnessed instances where decisions were taken by officials of the Guyana Elections Commission to derail the election. “There were instances where polling places were situated in places where persons who from PPP strongholds had to leave their villages to go to places which are known strongholds for other political groups… unfortunately, Guyana has a history of hostility during elections time between supporters of the two major political parties.”
He noted that placing polling places for People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) supporters were of a concern to the party. “We raised our concerns several times with the Chief Elections Officer but to no avail; until we were able to establish in Georgetown that many private residences were being identified as polling places when GECOM’s standard procedure is that private places can only be used in instances where public buildings were not available…”Nandlall said.
He noted that there were several instances set to mar the final results of the March 2020 Regional and General Elections results.
Prior to Nandlall, GECOM commissioner Sase Gunraj admitted under cross-examination by Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DCEO), Roxanne Myers Attorney Nigel Hughes, he did not have the required security tag when he was reportedly blocked from going to the third floor of the command centre. He admitted too that he was at the time pursuing Region Four Returning Officer (RO) Clairmont Mingo.
He told the Commission no tag was required for the second floor, where an office for the Elections Commission was set up, along with a logistics department and other facilities.
Meanwhile, Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha also appeared before the commission telling them, that weeks before the March 2020 Elections he had repeatedly written the then Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield requesting a number of electoral documents but had encountered several difficulties.
Mustapha was an agent of the PPP/C during the 2020 General and Regional Elections. On February 17, 2020 he had also, by way of a letter, notified Mr. Lowenfield of Mr. Manzoor Nadir’s appointment as the party’s Assistant Elections Agent, and later, of the appointment of Mr. Charles Ramson Jr. as the PPP/C’s Counting Agent.
- Attorney General (AG) Anil Nandlall SC, Caribbean Court of Justice, People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), Presidential Commission of Inquiry, Regional and General Elections
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