The ten motions supported by the PPP-appointed Commissioners at Guyana Election Commissioners’ meeting on Friday, April 24, 2020 were prudent and necessary, yet Justice Singh decided to reject most of the motions that would have greatly accelerated the obligations of GECOM to deliver election results that to this day has been denied the Guyanese people and International Stakeholders.
Three of the ten motions that were rejected will be used herein to highlight how complicit or compromised the Madam Chairperson has been throughout the March 2, 2020, Post-Election Period of Crisis.
Motion number 1. a):
The originals of all Statements of Poll for District 4 received by the Chief Election Officer be provided by the said Chief Election Officer to the Commissioners for examination.
Motion number 1. b):
Copies of all the Statements of Poll for District 4 received by the Chief Election Officer be provided to Commissioners of the Guyana Elections Commission by the said Chief Election Officer.
Rejected by Justice Singh:
In justifying her decision to reject the motion, Justice Singh in an interview with Guyana Chronicle, explained that the Elections Commission, having agreed to proceed with a National Recount on April 3, 2020 cannot backpedal on its decision, noting that the production of the SOPs, at this stage, will be of little value to the process.
“I committed to a recount. I made a commitment to the Court to have a recount; and if you have the SOPs that will not resolve the problem,” the GECOM Chair said.
Comment:
Justice Singh is ignoring the bird in her hand represented by the Region 4 SOPs and instead seeks to use a convoluted system led by several discredited GECOM individuals, who are bent on denying the democratic will of the Guyanese people. The provision of the GECOM SOPs for Region 4, will swiftly bring an end to the rigging game; while a national recount will open the Pandora boxes and provide open season for more fake ailments, excessive security barriers, extreme requirements to sanitize, disinfect and fumigate, unnecessary and false coronavirus test results, disappearing acts, miscounting, more rigging, court hearings, violence, looting, extend the presence of an illegitimate government, stifle aid to Guyana and worsen the impact of COVID-19 in Guyana.
Motion Number 5:
That all members of staff of the Guyana Elections Commission who were involved in the activities which resulted in controversy, allegations of fraud and legal proceedings in the High Court after Elections Day 2020, be removed from active participation in the recount process.
Rejected by Justice Singh:
Justice Singh was referenced as saying that there was no evidence before the Elections Commission, which support the basis of the motion. Both Gunraj and Alexander confirmed that the GECOM Chair advised that it would be unwise to have District 4 Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo involved in the process. Mingo was responsible for the tabulation of the SOPs for his electoral district, when the electoral process was repeatedly disrupted, and allegation of fraud leveled against him and GECOM.
Comment:
The core players responsible for the fraudulent speed reading of the amended Region 4 SOPs are still ominously present in the Recount Cast, except for Mingo, allowing the other tainted players, to continue by any means necessary, to frustrate and undermine the recount process. How can the Chairperson logically discard Mingo – yet keeps Mingo’s outlandish Region 4 declaration, along with his enablers and willful assistants in the fraudulent process. Clearly a case of inverse logic by Justice Singh.
Motion Number 10:
That the declaration of the election results of Electoral District number four (4) by Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo, made on the 13th day of March 2020, and the Consequential Report prepared and submitted to the Commission by the Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, pursuant to the provisions of Section 96 of the Representation of the People Act, Cap 1:03, be set aside, revoked, annulled and rescinded by the Guyana Elections Commission.
Rejected by Justice Singh:
The Chair refused to pass the motion, on the grounds that there is nothing to replace them. She reportedly posited that the declarations will be nullified when the recount provides new declarations.
Justice Singh told the Guyana Chronicle that the declaration of the results for District 4 or any other district cannot be nullified at this stage of the electoral process. “The declarations are in abeyance, we put them in abeyance because I cannot replace them until after the recount. They only can be replaced by a new declaration from the recount,” the GECOM chair explained.
Comment:
A null and void declaration cannot be nullified, it cannot be replaced as it does not legally exist. The non-adherence to the Representation of the People Act in the adding and tabulation of Region 4; as recognized by Guyana’s High Court and evidenced by the common sense observations of the Local and International Observers and the International Community, ought to have stirred some mental acuity in Justice Singh’s thinking. And prevented her from saying that she has to put in abeyance, a declaration of Region 4, which is a known nullity and further saying that she cannot replace the Region 4 declaration, which the Madame Justice has already declined by pledging to the Chief Justice to have a recount of Region 4. It boggles the mind why the obvious irrationality of accepting the fraudulent Region 4 declaration still finds credence in Justice Singh’s mind, even after dumping Mingo. It is beyond the point of logic.
In concluding, it is pertinent to note that on Thursday, March 12, 2020, as reported in Stabroek News; The European Union (EU) Election Observation Mission requested from GECOM the Statements of Poll that were used for the declaration of results for Region 4.
The letter signed by EU Deputy Chief Observer, Alexander Matus, said that the request was being made pursuant to Section 4 (1) and (3) of the General Elections (Observers) Act, as well as section 6,7, 8 and 9 of the Administrative Arrangement between the Delegation of the European Union in Guyana and GECOM.
Matus wrote “I am hereby requesting to examine the Statements of Polls based on which you have prepared the spreadsheet of results before the ascertainment of results for Region Four is completed”.
Guyana’s Private Sector Commission made a similar request for Statements of Poll, after the EU request.
Both requests were made on solid legal grounds, yet GECOM has failed to respond in both instances to the soliciting parties, as they have failed in many other instances to comply with their legal obligations.
The use of the Statements of Poll is an essential requirement (sine qua non) under the Representation of the People Act, to validate the adding and tabulation process for Region 4. Instead of using these most needed GECOM Statements of Poll to quickly allow for a democratic transition, the constitutionally empowered Justice Singh has denied access to the stakeholders by seeming to bury her head in the sand to find an interminable series of messy solutions, all combined together in an order for gazetting that will implode.
