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The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) responding to numerous public pronouncements calling for the body to conduct internal investigations into allegations of electoral fraud that were reported to have occurred during the 2nd March, 2020 General and Regional Elections is not within its constitutional scope.
In a release on Tuesday GECOM said “it is of crucial importance to note that Article 163 (1) b (i) of the Constitution of Guyana stipulates that ‘subject to the provisions of this article, the High Court shall have exclusive jurisdiction to determine any question whether – either generally or in any particular place, an election has been lawfully conducted or the result thereof has been or might have been, affected by any unlawful act or omission.’”
Accordingly, the Commission said, it takes the opportunity to acknowledge that correspondence listing the names of persons who were allegedly either deceased or out of the jurisdiction on the date of the elections were received from the A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) during the national recount, and sent to the Registrar General and Chief Immigration Officer respectively for verification.
“However, notwithstanding this action having been taken, GECOM could not have taken any further action in this matter, since to do so would have been in contravention of Article 163 of the Constitution.”
The body goes further to state the “fact that the national recount had established that more votes were cast in favour of the People’s Progressive Party / Civic (PPP/C), the onus was on the APNU+AFC to file an election petition to determine the validity of the allegations of unlawful acts such as voter impersonation. “
And in view of the foregoing, the Commission said it is reminding all stakeholders; specifically, political parties that the operations of GECOM are and will continue to be guided by the Constitution and the relevant laws for the conduct of registration and elections.
The Opposition (APNU+AFC) has filed two petitions.
