-urges party to ‘come clean’ after two failed election petitions

ATTORNEY GENERAL and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall has called on the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) to face the reality of their defeat in the 2020 General and Regional Elections and to cease misleading their supporters.

On Monday, the opposition faced a serious blow when the Appeal Court dismissed Petition 88, echoing its previous decision regarding Petition 99.

The Court of Appeal reaffirmed that there was no breach of the Constitution by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to make the elections “a sham or a travesty as claimed by the petitioners.”

Commenting on the ruling, Nandlall explained that the journey from the initial filing of the petitions to their eventual dismissal has been marked by confidence, legal battles, and what he describes as an attempt to “play wrong and strong when you have lost fairly.”

“They have lost the March 2, 2020, General and Regional elections by thousands of votes. These petitions, in my view, should never have been filed in the first place, because they did not have a case,” he said.

Nandlall took the opportunity to remind the public of the scenes outside the High Court when APNU+AFC leaders, including Roysdale Forde and the then Opposition Leader, Joseph Harmon, expressed unwavering confidence in the success of the petitions.

“They expressed the firm commitment to their supporters that within six months by virtue of these two petitions, the PPP government will be removed from office. And that is on the public record,” he asserted.

Despite these bold proclamations, both petitions faced the same fate within the stipulated six months.

Nandlall added that one even reached the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) before being dismissed, and the other failed to make it past the Court of Appeal, meeting an “actual death” at that stage, as described by him.

QUESTIONABLE MOTIVES

The Attorney General questioned the motivation behind filing these petitions, asserting that they should never have been submitted in the first place.

“I am saying that it’s an expression of trying to play wrong and strong when you have lost fairly. Secondly, to try to derail a process that you have agreed to,” Nandlall emphasised.

Nandlall pointed out that APNU+AFC had reluctantly agreed to a recount after their initial attempts to dispute the election results failed.

The allegations made by APNU+AFC, including claims of 15,000 deceased individuals voting and the removal of ballot box documents, were labelled as “baseless” by Nandlall.

He brought attention to the chaotic events at the Ashmin’s building during the vote-counting process, led by Clairmont Mingo, the returning officer of Region Four, and highlighted the party’s inconsistency in their tactics.

“These people are living in an alternate reality, and they have persuaded themselves of this fabricated and concocted reality in which they have a cocoon,” Nandlall said, expressing concern for the supporters who continue to buy into the opposition’s narrative.

He criticised the party for subjecting its followers to a “cruelty” by maintaining a false hope and an “alternate reality.”

The Attorney General’s pleaded with the APNU+AFC to “come clean” and to show transparency and honesty with their supporters.

“…tell them to their face, ‘look you have lost the elections. Move on!’” he stated, challenging the party to acknowledge defeat and cease the perpetuation of a misleading narrative.

As the legal battles came to a close with the dismissal of both election petitions, Nandlall said: “Notwithstanding that the first election petition was dismissed and now this one is being dismissed, I don’t think that this will change their narrative. They will still go out there shamelessly and assert victory at the election and then refer to the PPP government as installed. It is a narrative that is inane and possibly insane.”

DISMISSED

Election Petition 99 of 2020 was filed on behalf of petitioners Monica Thomas and Brennan Nurse.

In January 2021, it was dismissed by the Chief Justice due to late service, non-service, or improper service. Last year it was dismissed by Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

In June 2021, the coalition appealed the second one, Petition 88, which was filed by Claudette Thorne and Heston Bostwick.

That petition was dismissed on April 26, 2021 by the Chief Justice on the grounds of serious non-compliance with the Constitution of Guyana and electoral laws as they relate to GECOM’s conduct of those elections.

The Chief Justice held that the petitioners failed to present evidence to support claims that the conduct of those elections contravened the Constitution and the country’s electoral laws. The Court of Appeal upheld the Chief Justice ruling and dismissed the petition.

Currently, the high-profile electoral fraud case involving several prominent figures, including former District Four (Demerara-Mahaica) Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, former Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield; former People’s National Congress/Reform (PNC/R) Chairperson Volda Lawrence; PNC/R activist Carol Smith-Joseph, and several GECOM officials are before Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.

The defendants are charged in connection with inflating or facilitating the inflation of results for Region Four, the country’s largest voting district, to give the APNU+AFC Coalition a majority win at the polls when, in fact, the PPP/C had won by 15,000 votes.

The APNU has openly supported the defendants.

COLLUSION AND COLLABORATION

In April 2023, the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the events of the 2020 General and Regional Elections found that there was collusion and collaboration between senior GECOM officials to divert votes to the APNU +AFC, instead of safeguarding and preserving the integrity of the electoral system.

Chairman Stanley John and commissioners — former Chancellor Carl Singh and Senior Counsel Godfrey Smith made these findings on the basis of evidence from the many witnesses who had testified, along with the reports of the international observers.

The report found that Lowenfield blatantly made decisions and employed procedures in direct contradiction to the law and the will of the people. The findings revealed too that GECOM staffers ignored specific instructions from the court, used materials that were illegal and or manipulated, and sided with APNU+AFC agents to berate observers whenever objections were raised.