MORE evidence has been uncovered which proves hypocritical the People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP’s) objection to attorney Roysdale Forde representing the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), due to him being named as a candidate of the APNU+AFC.
The Guyana Chronicle recently reported that, for several years, some of GECOM’s top lawyers, PPP bigwigs, Senior Counsel, Ashton Chase and Doodnauth Singh represented the body without any issue.

Under the PPP, Singh was a former Minister of Legal Affairs and a Member of Parliament (MP) from 2001 to 2009. Before taking up the posts, a top official at GECOM told this newspaper that, in 1997, Singh represented GECOM in the well-known Esther Pereira Elections Petition case brought against GECOM by Georgetown resident and People’s National Congress 1998 (PNC) supporter, which saw the 1997 elections being vitiated.

Meanwhile, Chase, through his firm, Ashton Chase Associates, benefitted from millions of dollars in contracts, having been retained, for years, as the Commission’s lawyer. Chase has been hailed by the party as a “comrade” who was there at the very foundation of the Political Affairs Committee (PAC), the forerunner to the PPP. While the newspaper previously only reported on the $365,000 received for “consultation, instructions, appearance pleadings representation, urgency consultation, oral and written advice” in a Full Court action filed by attorney, Saphier Husain Subedar, against the CEO, research brings forth more evidence.

In February 2012, Ashton Chase Associates was paid $200,000 to represent GECOM and others in a court action filed by King and Bacchus. Later that year Ashton Chase Associates received $680,000 to represent GECOM in a Full Court action filed by the Guyana National Council on Public Policy (GNCPP). In 2013, Chase’s firm was contracted for $500,000, again in relation to the 2012 Full Court action filed by GNCPP.

Also representing the Commission in the past was Attorney-at-law, Sanjeev Datadin, a known supporter of the PPP. In 2016, Datadin was contracted by GECOM to represent the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) in a Full Court action filed by Ganga Persaud. He was contracted for the sum of $500,000 to provide his legal opinion and to represent the Commission in the case.

Datadin was the prosecutor alongside former PPP Attorney General, Anil Nandlall in 2011 and, in 2017, stood by the side of Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo when he was held at the Headquarters of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) in relation to the Pradoville Two land scam.

That same year Datadin was present on the list of 6 persons submitted by the Opposition Leader to President David Granger for the selection of a new GECOM Chair — a list which the President deemed non-confirming to the criteria laid down within the Constitution. Fast forward to 2019, Datadin represented former Alliance For Change (AFC) parliamentarian Charrandas Persaud.

Persaud is now widely known for crossing the floor of the National Assembly on December 21, 2018 to vote alongside the PPP in hopes of toppling the current government with his vote following the debate of the no-confidence motion against the government. In the recent past, Datadin has filed applications to the CCJ on behalf of former parliamentarian Charrandass Persaud to prevent a sitting of the National Assembly (dismissed); against government-nominated GECOM Commissioners on behalf of Marcel Gaskin for alleged conspiracy to breach the constitution (dismissed); and is now representing the recently-extradited Marcus Bisram, currently facing a charge of murder in Guyana for an incident which occurred in 2016. For the 2020 elections, he has been listed as a candidate of the PPP, proving strong the ties forged over a decade ago.