General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Bharrat Jagdeo Tuesday said the most recent court case filed to block the declaration of the results of the election is an “abuse of the court.”
During an update on his Facebook page Tuesday, Jagdeo said in asking the court to endorse the most recent report presented by the Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield, the applicant is also asking the court to endorse the fraudulent numbers for district four contained in the report.
“…they are asking the court to allow the use of fraudulent numbers to declare the results of the elections based on, in their view, some technicality,” the PPP General Secretary said.
Lowenfield in a report presented to the Chairperson of GECOM Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh on Saturday included the exact inflated figures for the Coalition as declared by District Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo which was widely protested as being fraudulent and later proven during the national recount.
Lowenfield’s recent report declared that there were 475,118 valid votes –including Mingo’s inflated numbers –compared to 460,352 valid votes recorded by the national recount.
“Incredibly the same Lowenfield has now produced a report to GECOM to say that 475,000 people voted…15,000 votes more than are actually in the box, that APNU won these elections and he expects the court in Guyana to say, yes you can use that report although it has fraudulent numbers….’
“This is what they expect the court to endorse, fraud, to endorse electoral fraud,” Jagdeo said.
A Coalition supporter Misenga Jones represented by attorney Mayo Robertson has moved to the court seeking a declaration that the Chairman and the Commission have not complied with the constitutionally stated process as outlined in Article 177(2)(b) of the Constitution.
That part of the Constitution says the party with more votes wins the elections and that the chair of the GECOM will declare the results based on the advice of the Chief Elections Officer.
Jagdeo said if this is so and the Chairperson and Commission is forced to move ahead with the report presented by the CEO, it will set a precedence to thwart the will of the people in future elections.
“If they succeed, then any CEO now or in the future can come up with any number, not following the process as outlined in the Representation of the People’s Act…” he noted.
The Representation of the People’s Act specifies that the numbers to declare the elections results must come from a transparent tabulation of the Statements of Poll.
Jagdeo predicts that the case can end up all way to Guyana’s final appeal court –the Caribbean Court of Justice.
“The Commission has the authority to ensure fairness and impartiality and to ensure the will of the people are honored,” Jagdeo said, adding that “the court cannot direct the Commission on what they [GECOM] should do.”
The Chairperson of GECOM has written to the CEO three times requesting that he present a report with the results of the national vote recount which shows the PPP beat APNU+AFC by 15,416 votes.
