Mayors up call for swearing-in of Granger

Saying that they are weary of the delay in the declaration of the March 2 General and Regional Elections, four Mayors on Tuesday issued a call for an immediate swearing-in of His Excellency President David Granger.
Those executives include Mayors Gifford Marshall of Bartica; David Adams of Mahdia; Waneka Arrindell of Linden and Winifred Heywood of New Amsterdam. In a joint statement the mayors noted that they have been monitoring the election process since E-day and remain concerned that after 119 days, the people of Guyana have not seen a conclusion of the exercise.

The mayors noted the initial 10 declarations that were made and the subsequent recount process that was initiated. “It has not escaped our attention that this four-step process was completed on June 8th and step one (1) showed a final tally of votes that were subject to verification by the Guyana Election Commission (GECOM),” the document said.
On June 23, GECOM Chair Justice (Ret’d), Claudette Singh received the final report from the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield. Guided by the ruling of the Appellate Court who on Monday, June 22 ordered that GECOM’s declaration be guided only by “more valid votes cast,” the CEO’s submission indicated that the APNU+AFC Coalition won the recent elections. The PPP was able to garner 166,343 votes. “Having regard to the aforementioned, we call on GECOM to complete this election process by making a declaration based on the Chief Elections Officer’s report,” the Mayors emphasised.

Tomorrow, July 1, Guyana’s elections Court matter continues at the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) following the filing of an appeal by the PPP to overturn the final decision made by Justices Brassington Reynolds and Dawn Gregory in the Court of Appeal. The Apex court will first have to rule if it has jurisdiction to hear the case before it. However, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, the Hon. Basil Williams maintains that according to Article 177 (4) of the Constitution that any decisions made by the Appeal Court is final and cannot be challenged further.