– Elections CoI lawyer recommends

BASED on the evidence submitted to the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into events surrounding the 2020 General and Regional Elections, Senior Counsel, Sophia Chote, has signalled the need for the Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to benefit from an independent legal adviser and to undergo management training.

The Trinidadian lawyer who is representing the CoI, told the commission on Friday during her summation of the evidence that the inquiry provided some of the most earth-shattering revelations, which no doubt offered a behind-the-scenes account of exactly what took place during the 2020 elections.

According to Chote, the Chairperson of GECOM, Justice (ret’d), Claudette Singh, based on what she said during her testimony, appeared to have dropped the ball on serious issues in the aftermath of the elections.

The Senior Counsel said based on the testimony, there was “little cohesion” between the GECOM Chairman and party commissioners during the 2020 elections.

“This chairman, it appears, is not someone with a political background. She comes from a strictly legal background. She took on the job after there was high controversy about the previous person in that position. She was there for just a few months.

“Can she rely on… all of the commissioners as a resource? And I will say No! Because on partisan matters, they will be split…The chairman perhaps needs to have an independent legal adviser,” Chote said.

Previously, Singh had testified about events which unfolded on March 5, 2020, at GECOM’s command centre, the Ashmin’s Building at Hadfield and High Streets in Georgetown which also housed the District Four operations, led by Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo.

Mingo had attempted to make a false declaration from the stairway connecting the ground floor to the first floor of the building. The chairperson had complained of feeling unwell, but the ranks barred the Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) from entering the room.

“I felt a bit dizzy; I wasn’t feeling well. There were so many things on my mind; I was actually shaking, because, you see, with the declaration and then…there were so many events… There were so many things on my mind, and I wanted to know what the next step was.

“So, I just couldn’t be bothered with anybody; I went up there just to have a quiet moment. In fact, my security was calling on me to leave, but I said no; I will spend some time in a quiet moment here and just reflect on everything. I didn’t want to speak with anyone,” Justice Singh had said during her testimony.

In reviewing the evidence, Chote urged Chairman of the CoI, Stanley John and commissioners — former Chancellor, Carl Singh and Senior Counsel Godfrey Smith to review Singh’s actions when compiling their report and make possible recommendations.

“Does a chairman coming in need to have training in management skills? Perhaps. Because it seems to me that the chairman admitted that she did not know what to do when it all started falling down.

“It appears as though this lady had found herself in a position where she had never encountered something like this in her life and didn’t know how to approach it, that’s the bottom line,” Chote said.

However, the Trinidadian lawyer said that she is not offering a “reason” for the chairperson’s action, but inferences can be drawn when GECOM commissioners were left to run amok.

“It seems to me as though the commission was not really operating as a commission. You had commissioners overseeing different things. They were doing their authentication of Statements of Poll and so on. But there was very little cohesion. So, their oversight, I respectfully suggest was deeply affected by this,” the Senior Counsel argued.

In her summation, Chote said that these actions are capable of stymieing the exercise of constitutional duty and detracting from constitutional performance during the 2020 elections.

The CoI commenced in November 2022 and is expected to hand over “its report, findings and recommendations” to the President, in writing, within seven months.

According to the Terms of Reference, the commissioners will make recommendations as deemed fit and necessary to permit GECOM to discharge its statutory functions as prescribed by the Representation of the People Act.

Guyanese, after casting their votes on March 2, 2020, had to endure a five-month wait for the results of the elections, as they witnessed alleged unlawful acts and a slew of legal challenges.

During this time, the patience of the electorate was tested, as electors observed what were described as attempts by the then APNU+AFC administration to rip the democratic fabric of the nation with “delay tactics” which were openly criticised by Caribbean leaders and international observers.

It was only after the legal challenges and international intervention that a national recount of all votes cast was convened, and the figures showed that the PPP/C had received 233,336 votes, while the APNU+AFC coalition got 217,920 votes.