— PPP/C nominated commissioners tell Vincent Alexander

THE PPP/C nominated commissioners at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) have slammed their APNU+AFC counterpart, Vincent Alexander, for his unjustified attack on GECOM Chair, Justice (ret’d), Claudette Singh.

Commissioners Sase Gunraj, Clement Rohee and Manoj Narayan, in a letter, were responding to a letter by Alexander published on Wednesday in Stabroek News headlined “The GECOM Chair voted against an extension of claims”.

GECOM in a statement on Wednesday said no such decision was made.
“For the record, we were all present at GECOM’s statutory meeting on the 13th of September, 2022, when the Chair of GECOM informed the Commissioners that the Chief Elections Officer received a letter dated the 13th of September, 2022, from A Partnership For National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) requesting an extension of claims in the ongoing Claims and Objections process. The Commission thereafter held discussions to determine whether the request should be granted. It must be stated for the record that the Chair of GECOM, at no time whatsoever during these deliberations, voted against the grant of the extension of claims sought. In fact, the deliberations on the issue of granting or refusing the request for an extension were not concluded at the statutory meeting on the 13th of September, 2022. Therefore, the headline of the letter is blatantly false and misleading,” the PPP commissioners said.

They noted that the decision taken by the Chair of GECOM is that the Chief Elections Officer immediately writes to the governing political party, the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C), and other parliamentary opposition parties informing them of the request of APNU+AFC and soliciting their views.

“This decision was not done to have the “PPP/C determine whether citizens can realise their rights”, as contended by Commissioner Alexander in his letter but was done in the interest of fairness and transparency and to inquire whether other stakeholder political parties experienced similar issues during the claims process as those experienced by APNU+AFC. This letter was dispatched by the CEO after the meeting on the 13th of September, 2022,” the PPP- nominated commissioners said.

On September 14, 2022, GECOM held another meeting of the Commissioners where deliberations continued on the issue of the request by APNU + AFC and it was reported by the Chair of GECOM that the Commission received a response from the PPP/C.

The PPP/C-nominated commissioners said that,at the close of the deliberations, the Chair of GECOM voted in favour of granting the extension of time as requested by APNU + AFC, pointing out that at no time prior to that did the Chair of GECOM vote against the extension sought or made any decision that was adverse to the grant of such a request.

“The allegations levelled by Commissioner Alexander against the Chair of GECOM are another unjustified and unwarranted attack on the integrity, impartiality and professionalism of the Chair, all designed and intended to intimidate the Chair. In fact, such tactics are part of a recent scheme of intimidation utilised by several leaders of APNU + AFC and the Commissioners appointed by that party to influence the decisions of the Chair of GECOM. We feel compelled to protect the integrity, the independence and the autonomy of GECOM as a Constitutional Commission, its Chair and by extension all officers and employees of GECOM’s Secretariat against such intimidatory tactics, obviously designed to undermine its independence,” the commissioners concluded in their letter.