Any court action by certain political elements to prevent the official declaration of the final results of the March 2 General and Regional Elections as derived from the national recount process, would be a “misconceived use of the legal process”.
This is the view proffered by former Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs under the Peoples Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) administration, Anil Nandlall, who was earlier today responding to questions from the media outside the Arthur Chung Conference Center where the final tabulation process was being wrapped up.
“There should be no court action; at least not challenging the results before the declaration. Once filed before, that seeks to stop the declaration or seeks to impugn the results produced by the national recount prior to the declaration of the results, and not by an elections petition; in my humble view, would be misconceived use of the legal process,” Nandlall said.
During the recount exercise, the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) had arbitrarily raised a number of objections, claiming that certain persons who ‘voted’ at the March 2 polls were either dead or migrated.
Several political stakeholders had accused the coalition of merely trying to delay the recount by getting GECOM to go on a wild fishing expedition to verify their claims of voter fraud.
Immediately after the allegations were made, hundreds of these persons whom the APNU/AFC claimed were out of the jurisdiction but ‘voted’, were, in fact, present in Guyana at the time of voting. Also, several of the persons whom the Coalition claimed were dead but ‘voted’ were found to be alive and well.
In spite of the coalition being proven wrong, it is repeating the outlandish claims that there was voter fraud on E-Day, and hence, has signaled its intention to reject the results coming out of the national recount.
However, Nandlall in debunking the baseless claims once more, reminded that these are all matters that would have to be addressed by way of an elections petition, after the declaration of the results and a president is sworn in.
“Those are matters that ought to form the subject of an elections petition and present to an elections court by the proper procedure, once the declaration of the results is made,” he noted.
The tabulation of votes recounted during the national recount exercise completed earlier today and it has confirmed that the PPP/C has won the 2020 General and Regional Elections.
According to the vote tabulation, the PPP/C secured 233,336 votes while the APNU/AFC garnered 217,920 – a difference of 15,416 votes. A New and United Guyana gained 2,313 votes; Change Guyana got 1,953; Liberty and Justice Party won 2,657; Peoples Republic Party received 889; The Citizenship Initiative won 680; The New Movement garnered 244; and United Republican Party received 360.
