Forde says Nandlall is petrified of Election Petition thus runs to GECOM

The AG is seeking documentation based on allegations deceased persons purportedly voted, there was multiple voting, and persons who were overseas on Election Day (March 2, 2020) voted. According to him, until now, the impression conveyed is that these documents and/or data were generated by and obtained from respective lawful official repository such as the Immigration Department, Guyana Police Force, and the General Registrar’s Office

GECOM’s Chairperson, at the end of the Recount Exercise, admitted grave irregularities were unearthed during the recount, but advised these have to be addressed by election petition. The PPP/C also said any irregularities should be taken to the court by election petition. The opposition has two (2) petitions before the Courts.

In an invited comment with Village Voice on the AG’s request to Justice Singh, Shadow Minister of Legal Affairs, Roysdale Forde SC, said “Nandlall is so petrified of the Election Petition that he is seemingly reluctant to even read the Petition. He could have saved himself the task of writing a letter to GECOM requesting the documents and looked at the Petition.”

According to the shadow minister, who is also one of the lawyers in the two election petitions, the AG “despite his maneuvering is incapable of objectively confirming the authenticity of the documentation submitted to GECOM, [and] I am astonished as the AG he would write GECOM to obtain document so that he can confirm their authenticity.”

Of equal concern Forde said,  is that “GECOM has failed to engage in or initiate any confirmatory process after two (2) years,” pointing out that “it is GECOM who ought to have been disturbed by the documentation it received because it places under scrutiny “the integrity of the GECOM and its inability to conduct and discharge credible election that is questioned in the documentation submitted to [the body].”

The AG in his letter to the Chairperson, regarding claims of fictitious voting said, “You will appreciate that these are grave allegations, and as baseless and unfounded as they were proven to be, it is important that the relevant state agency enquiries into the source of this information, upon whose directions they were sourced, and perhaps, most importantly, to reconfirm their inaccuracy, for the public record.”

Forde said should GECOM acquiesce to the AG’s request it “will now manifest its inability to be impartial and independent by giving documentation it received and ought itself to have long confirmed to a participant in the elections who benefitted from the fraud, substitute voting and voter impersonation, to confirm.”

Daily GECOM is proving to the electorate that they can have no confidence in such a partisan institution, said the shadow minister.