Harmon contradicts President on acceptance of elections results

Joseph Harmon, Campaign Manager of APNU+AFC on Thursday afternoon appeared to hang on to the claims that the fraudulent votes concocted in District Four should be used in declaring the results of the elections, contradicting an earlier statement from President David Granger that he will accept the declaration made by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) without any conditions.

“We iterate that when the matter goes to GECOM that only valid votes will be counted in the final declaration made by the Chairman of GECOM.

“Fraudulent votes cannot be the basis for a final declaration to be made.

“This is our firm position,” Harmon stated.

What the Coalition refers to as valid votes are actually the votes from the vote tabulation before the recount particularly that of District Four, for which its numbers were fraudulently bumped up to hand it a victory.

Conversely, it is the votes which were validated during the recount and which all of the courts have ruled are valid, is what it considers fraudulent and doesn’t want to be declared.

The Coalition lost the elections by over 24,000 votes five months ago but has held on to power and has used the courts to try to get it to rule that whatever the Chief Elections Officer decides is what GECOM should declare.

But in three solid decisions made first at the Caribbean Court of Justice, then the High Court and now the Court of Appeal it has been made clear that the Chief Elections Officer must act on the basis of the votes from the recount.

APNU+AFC does not want the results of the recount to be used.

It wants the Chief Elections Officer to be able to use figures which were fraudulently concocted by District Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo to be used with the declarations from the other nine electoral districts to be used. That is what Harmon and the Coalition have claimed are valid votes.

The Court of Appeal Thursday ruled that the attempt to try to throw out the clear ruling of the Chief Justice, who relied on a previous ruling of the Caribbean Court of Justice, was frivolous and vexatious.

Harmon sought to attack the composition of the Court of Appeal in expressing disappointment at the ruling.

“While I did not expect much out of the Court of Appeal as constituted I am still disappointed that the Court did not use this opportunity at this juncture in the history of Guyana to make a judgment which was sound in law,” he stated.

He went on to say: “The Guyanese people will certainly examine in a more meticulous way the manner in which their justice system functions.”

But he then said that the APNU+AFC Coalition is committed to the rule of law and respect for decisions of our Court.

Even so, Roysdale Forde, an APNU+AFC candidate and an attorney for the applicant in the case, applied for a three-day stay in execution of the Court of Appeal’s ruling. The court granted a one day stay instead.

On Thursday morning, President Granger stated: “With respect, my statements on compliance with the declaration wasn’t conditional.

“I didn’t say if the rain is falling or the sun is shining, you know, if it comes by day or by night.

“I am obliged to observe the declaration of the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission,” Granger told reporters after he had declared open the new COVID-19 Hospital at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara.