GENERAL Secretary of the governing People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, believes it is fundamental to have consistency within Guyana’s legal landscape to ensure there is fairness, impartiality and public trust in the judicial system.

While the executive arm has no control over judicial operations, the PPP General Secretary spoke from his personal nature and his political party’s perspective on Guyana’s judiciary.

During a news conference at Freedom House on Thursday last, he commended those within the judiciary who work very hard and deliver justice based on the facts that are presented before them.

“And we can all be proud of their work. They work in an impartial manner and they do not allow political or other extraneous considerations to influence their decisions. But I can’t say that for every member of the judicial system. Because I’ve seen so many inconsistent positions taken that lead me to conclude that the cases and the decisions made on those cases could not [have been and] cannot be supported by the facts before the judicial officer and they had to be somewhat extraneous consideration.”

Dr. Jagdeo referenced the 2020 General and Regional elections case to solidify his point. He said that while some persons within the judiciary stood out based on their integrity and the decisions that they made, it was only owing to the apolitical decision handed down by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) that justice was able to prevail.

“So, I will be the last person here as General Secretary of this party, to say that I believe that all decisions in the judiciary are made on the basis of the facts before them, and on the basis of high standards. But you do have really good decisions, and our system works,” Dr Jagdeo explained.

While continuing to speak on the election case which surrounds alleged fraud relating to events of the 2020 General and Regional Elections, Dr. Jagdeo said that the matter was almost treated like “political football.”

After a three-year delay, the trial into alleged electoral fraud by former senior functionaries of the country’s elections body is now set to begin on July 29 before City Magistrate, Leron Daly.

People’s National Congress/Reform (PNC/R) activist Carol Smith-Joseph; former Health Minister under the A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) government, Volda Lawrence; former Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield; former Deputy CEO, Roxanne Myers; former District Four (Demerara-Mahaica) Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo; and GECOM employees, Sheffern February, Enrique Livan, Denise Babb-Cummings, and Michelle Miller are accused of a number of offences, including misconduct in public office, uttering forged documents, and plotting to deceive the electors of Guyana by declaring a false account of votes.

It is alleged that the defendants inflated or facilitated the inflation of results for Region Four, the country’s largest voting district, to give the APNU+AFC coalition a majority win at the March 2020 elections, when, in fact, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) had won by over 15,000 votes.

The people, in 2020, went to the polls and peacefully gave a mandate to the PPP/C to govern.

Guyanese, after casting their votes, had to endure a five-month wait for the results of the General and Regional 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 was 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 a wide section of society.

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 received 233, 336 votes, while the APNU+AFC Coalition got 217,920 votes.