THE Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the March 2020 General and Regional Elections set up by President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali has completed its work. The report was handed over to the President by Commission Chairman, Justice (Retired) Stanley John and the findings are now in the public domain.

The report found that there was ‘a conscious and deliberate-even brazen effort’- to violate the provisions of Section 84 (1) of the Representation of the People Act by senior officials of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).

President Ali must be commended for setting up the Commission which was comprised of eminent jurists from Guyana and the Caribbean. Immediately upon taking political office, President Ali committed himself to setting up the Commission in order to lay bare what actually transpired during the tabulation and declaration of the results of the elections.

The Commission was chaired by Retired Justice of Appeal of Turks and Caicos Stanley John, and included former Chancellor of the Judiciary of Guyana Carl Singh and High Court Judge (Belize) and former Justice of Appeal (ag) in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court Goedfrey Smith.

The report implicated several key operatives of the GECOM Secretariat including its then Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield; Deputy Chief Elections Officer, Roxanne Myers and Returning Officer of Region Four, Clairmont Mingo for their role in attempting to subvert the will of the electorate in favour of the APNU +AFC coalition.

According to the findings, the identified GECOM officials “abandoned all need for neutrality and impartiality and demonstrated a bias for a competing political party and in the course of events over those days, showed an open connection with that party and by their efforts, sought a desired result for that party.

“The CEO, by his overall conduct, opened himself to the criticism that the spreadsheet was introduced for ulterior motives and not for efficiency. Indeed, the use of the spreadsheet created turmoil, caused major disruptions and slowed the tabulation process. The CEO knew, or ought to have known that the methodology approved by GECOM for the entertainment and tabulation of votes was through the use of SOPs.”

There is no need to go into all the details and ramifications of the report except to make the point that the findings pointed to a need to put in place the necessary safeguards to prevent a recurrence, especially in view of the impending local government elections due on June 12.

The Guyana Elections Commission has already commenced the process of putting in place the necessary mechanisms to ensuring that the local government elections are conducted in a free, fair and transparent manner.

Work has also commenced at the legislative level to increase the penalties for GECOM officials found guilty of any action or actions aimed at manipulating the results of the elections. These are all positive developments. Unfortunately, the PNC seems hesitant to lend its support to these initiatives and continue instead to fish for ‘red-herrings’ with a view to cast doubts on the integrity of the electoral process.

In the final analysis, it is the electorate that will determine the outcome of the elections and it is the responsibility of GECOM to ensure that every vote is counted and that the elections are held in a free, fair and transparent manner.

In a sense, the report can be seen as a re-confirmation of what had already been known by the Guyanese people and the international community, namely that the PPP/C had won the elections by a comfortable majority of votes based on the Statements of Polls (SOPs) submitted by GECOM immediately after the close of poll.

What resulted thereafter were blatant attempts by some ‘rogue’ elements within the GECOM Secretariat in collaboration with APNU+AFC operatives to manipulate the results of the elections in order to secure a ‘victory’ for that coalition.

The report has now, hopefully, put to rest any lingering fear or concern individuals may have had regarding the final declaration of the results of the March 2020 General and Regional elections and hopefully debunk the false and misleading narrative of the APNU+AFC coalition that it was ‘cheated’ out of political office.

Elections, both national, regional and local are serious business. It represented a mandate from the electorate as to whom and from which party or organisation their elected representatives should come from and any attempt to subvert that mandate must be dealt with by the full force of the law.

Such actions as happened during the March 2020 elections have no place in a modern and civilised society and must be condemned by all those who cherish the ideals of a society based on democracy and the rule of law.