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…Opposition Leader expresses no confidence in GECOM chair
…says coalition would be uncomfortable going into LGE with her at the helm
Opposition Leader, Joseph Harmon has called out Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh for being “complicit” in the controversial arrests of GECOM staff by the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and the subsequent ill-treatment of these individuals and he said that his coalition would be uncomfortable going into the next Local Government Elections with her at the helm.
In an exclusive interview with the Village Voice on Sunday Harmon said that the former Justice of Appeal must undoubtedly be aware of the “unlawful” acts of the police but has chosen to remain silent for questionable reasons. In the meanwhile, he said that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) is advancing its ulterior motive to “cripple” the Elections Commission so that it is unable to hold fresh elections in the case of a successful election petition. “I’m going to call out this Chairman of the Elections Commission today as being complicit in the actions of the police, unlawful as they may be, she has been a part of this and it has really created some doubts in my own mind as to how unbiased and impartial she is going forward,” said the Opposition Leader.
In less than a month, the police have arrested GECOM Assistants, Carolyn Mikhaik Duncan, Sheffern February and Michelle Miller as well as supervisor during the national recount, Enrique Livan. In a detailed statement, Miller recounted how she was taken out of the hospital by the Police and arrested, denied her attorney for over 72 hours while being persistently questioned by the Police, coaxed by Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Charles Ramson (Jr) to “cooperate with the police”, left tired and hungry on her menstrual cycle which worsened her blood pressure and eventually was released on a hefty bail of $100,000.
The arrests of the GECOM staff are apart from arrests and charges laid against District Four Returning Officer (RO), Clairmont Mingo and Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield.
Through it all, Harmon said that it is concerning that the GECOM Chair has remained completely silent. He told the Village Voice “…she’s a Chief Justice, she’s a former Justice of Appeal and you cannot sit and watch all of these breaches of people’s constitutional rights, their rights to an attorney, their rights to freedom of association, their rights to support which ever political party they want, and you see all of those rights being violated on a daily basis and 1) you say nothing and 2) you are providing information to the police to pursue this witch-hunt which is unlawful.”
Harmon said that he has seen correspondence between the heads of the Police Force and the GECOM Chair in which it was requested that Singh provide certain documentation.
However, he said “The Chairman of the Elections Commission has no authority under the law to provide the police with those documents. Those are documents which the law requires the Chief Elections Officer to be the sole repository of those documents and they’re only to be released upon the orders of a filing of an elections petition and actions pursuant to that.”
Harmon, who was a part of the appointment of Justice Singh through a middle ground met by the then President and Opposition Leader, said that he had confidence at the time that her understanding of the law and elections issues would have put her in a better position than most to head GECOM. “When she was appointed there was some relief…the country, I think, breathed a sigh of relief when we were able to agree on the Chairman but, I don’t know at what point but at some point in time the decisions of the Commission started to go in a different direction and, frankly speaking, right now I don’t have that confidence in her,” he said.
Harmon sympathised with Miller but also spotlighted the strategic involvement of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) who relieved Justice Singh, just in time, of her private criminal charges of electoral fraud while Lowenfield’s charges remain intact. Legal luminaries representing People’s National Congress/Reform (PNC/R) Chairperson, Volda Lawrence, Lowenfield and Mingo have observed that even when they were brought before the Court with insufficient evidence, the DPP continues to step in to take over these proceedings.
Harmon has written to the international community highlighting these events. Those written to include: Secretaries General of the United Nations, Commonwealth, Amnesty International, CARICOM and the OAS, the Presidents of the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Inter Parliamentary Union and Parlamericas, the Chair of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and a number of other international organisations.
“We have received some responses from the international community acknowledging receipt of my first mail and indicating that they will keep an eye on what is happening. I have sent a second set of documents yesterday which include the petition which we have filed, it includes the statement from Ms. Miller – that statement really grew my skin when I saw what they did there – it includes the intervention of sitting government ministers in police investigation (and) it also includes the statement from the three Commissioners concerning their own concerns which they have raised,” he said. The Opposition has since written the Commissioner of Police (ag), Nigel Hoppie, requesting an urgent meeting.
Harmon said, further, that while many may view the unfolding as uncoincidental, he sees a plan in plain sight by the PPP to change the ethnic make-up of the Elections Commission and to dismantle its ability to hold fresh elections. “They are trying to cripple the Elections Commission so that they are not in a position to be able to run, successfully, the Local Government Elections which are going to be run any time soon and the next General Elections. It’s an ulterior motive which I think they’re have. They’re basically trying to destroy and disregard every law that has to do with elections because they know very well what the petition will prove,” said the Opposition Leader.
