Opposition Leader designate, Joseph Harmon has announced that the APNU+AFC’s Elections Petition challenge to the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections will be filed on Monday, August 31, 2020.
He made the announcement on social media a few hours ago. “Comrades, the petition will be filed on Monday 31st August, 10 am, supreme Court Building. We are asked to mobilise in numbers to lend support to our party. We want a big manifestation against this persecution that is going on,” Harmon stated.
According to law, the petition has to be filed within 28 days after the elections results are gazetted by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). Earlier in August, former President of Guyana and Leader of the PNC/R, David Granger had vowed that Election Petition was imminent. “The recount process revealed a plethora of grave anomalies, discrepancies and irregularities, the scale, size and scope of which were revealed only through tabulation and observation during the recount. The recount was intended to determine both the quantitative and qualitative nature of the votes cast at the General and Regional Elections and to determine ‘a final credible count’. At the end of the recount, however, it became manifest that the results did not meet the standard for credible elections,” Granger stated.
At an average, the party claims that the wrongdoings found amount to over 2,000 anomalies and over 4,000 cases of voter impersonation. From the commencement of the National Recount in May, 2020, the APNU+AFC sent some 63 letters of correspondence to GECOM Chair and the Secretariat of GECOM requesting that these and other issues which were “parked” be dealt with.
However, the Elections Commission, going against its already faulty National Recount Order, ultimately decided that it did not have the powers to address the irregularities as highlighted by the party and this must be addressed through an Elections Petition. After weeks of much back-and-forth and legal battles – some all the way up to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ — Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield submitted his final Elections Report to the GECOM Chair. The results showed a win for the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C). However, Lowenfield noted the irregularities uncovered and verified, pointing out that he was only submitting the report based on recount data because of the directive of the GECOM Chair.
He stated: “In accordance with Article 177 (2)(b), it is worth restating that Order 60 of 2020 revealed that the numerical count of the ballots cast for each list of candidates does not reflect the true will of the electors. The evidence provided with respect to voter impersonation has been verified by the relevant authorities by way of immigration records and deceased reports.”
Added to this, the Elections Commission had relied on Article 162 of the Constitution, and Section 22 of the Elections Law (Amendment) Act to bring the Recount Order No. 60 into effect, but the CCJ, in its ruling on the matter, said the allocation of seats in the National Assembly and the identification of the successful presidential candidate could only be based on the reports of the Returning Officers. Lowenfield had pointed out that Returning Officers were not used in the National Recount and, therefore, the only results that could be relied upon were the 10 declarations made by Returning Officers in March 2020. The APNU+AFC has vowed that it will not rest until the matter of the March 2, 2020 Elections is properly ventilated in the Courts.
