…GECOM Chair advises

CHAIRMAN of the Guyana Elections Commission (GEOCM), Justice Claudette Singh, has decided that leaders of the United Republican Party (URP), the People’s Republic Party (PRP) and the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) will remain on their party’s list for the upcoming General and Regional Elections.

“The commission decided yesterday that they will remain on the list,” GECOM’s Public Relation Officer (PRO), Yolanda Ward, told News-Talk Radio Guyana 103.1 FM/ Demerara Waves Online News on Wednesday. The information comes some 16 days later after commissioners repeatedly reported that URP’s, Dr. Vishnu Bandhu; PRP’s, Dr. Valerie Leung and LPJ’s, Lennox Shuman, would be removed from their lists for making false declarations with regards to their dual citizenship.

However, a letter written by Singh to Shuman’s lawyer, K. Juman-Yassin, dated February 5, 2020 was made public to the media by the LJP head on Wednesday. It was titled, ‘Removal of Candidate’s Name from Party’s List for Contesting General and Regional Elections 2020’
“Reference is made to previous correspondence on the above-mentioned subject ending with your letter dated February 5, 2020. I have to inform you that the commission, after considerable deliberations, decided that Mr. Shuman’s name would remain on his party’s list,” the GECOM Chair stated.

It is unknown what influenced the Chair’s decision. The three had signed Statutory Declaration Forms as candidates to contest of the upcoming Elections, but the report was that they possessed dual citizenship at the time. To be signatory to the form while a dual citizen is in breach of Articles 53 and 155 of the Constitution and makes a person liable to imprisonment for one year according to the Statutory Declaration Act, Chapter 5:09.

Shuman and Leung had argued that from the time they put their signature to their renunciation forms, they were no longer dual citizens. The party leaders have also argued that GECOM does not have the right to remove a candidate from its list as the law empowers only the High Court to so do. Dr. Bandhu’s renunciation certificate from American citizenship was dated January 16, 2020; Shuman’s renunciation certificate of Canadian citizenship was dated January 9, 2020 while Dr. Leung’s renunciation certificate of Canadian citizenship was dated January 21, 2020.