12 NEWS APNU/AFC hysteria over wrongly-placed ancillary documents reeks of desperation – Nandlall SATURDAY, JUNE 6, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM
Former Attorney General and PPP Executive, Anil Nandlall
F
ormer Attorney General and PPP Executive, Anil Nandlall on Friday said that the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC) is making a mountain out of a molehill in relation to the wrongly placed ancillary documents from several elections Polling Stations along the East Coast Demerara corridor. Nandlall, who along with other members of his party, worked along the East Coast on March 2 for the General and Regional Elections, said that they became aware of the issue the very night of March 2. He explained that Deputy Returning Officers for Polling Stations between Vryheid’s Lust and La Bonne Intention, ECD, took it upon themselves to uplift certain documents – polling book, marked and unmarked list of electors, folios, used seals and others from the Presiding Officers. This should not have happened because those documents should have been
placed in the corresponding ballot boxes for the polling place. Nevertheless, the POs sealed the ballot boxes with the votes for their stations. Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, upon the insistence of the PPP/C, prepared a document where he outlined the rules that govern the operations of the POs but according to Nandlall, those were disregarded. “In these areas, the Deputy Returning Officer I don’t know either deliberately or unintentionally decided to arrogate onto themselves the power to lay down some new rules. They disregarded the CEO’s direction and they put all these materials in a separate package or in separate packages and transmitted them to the Returning Officer and what was left in the ballot boxes were only the ballots,” Nandlall told reporters on Friday at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre. The party raised this issue with the then Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo, who assured them that it was a mistake and would be addressed administratively. He noted that the party felt that the issue was dealt with and they went about their work.
APNU/AFC narrative
However, the APNU/ AFC in pushing the narrative of electoral fraud raised the issue of the missing ancillary documents for the polling places. This prompted the PPP/C to engage Lowenfield on Friday where he promised to resolve the issues since the documents are in his possession. Nandlall said he was assured, by Mingo, that
The Presiding Officer of the Montrose Primary School took to social media and explained what occurred on elections night
Lowenfield has knowledge of the actions of the DROs. “Mr Lowenfield confirmed that he has custody of all these documents and they were wrongly excluded. But somewhere, yesterday [Thursday] someone from the Secretariat mischievously advised the operators of the work stations to insert, into the observation report, language to suggest that the votes and the recount are invalidated,” Nandlall said. He said that with the exception of ballots being bogus, having extra marks and not stamped, no one at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has the power to invalidate a vote. The attorney explained that from the inception of the recount exercise, there have been issues of missing poll books, improperly sealed ballot boxes or envelopes among others but the
recount went on and votes were tabulated. “But suddenly we are hearing of a narrative constructed by Joseph Harmon speaking about invalid votes. And suddenly, I don’t believe coincidentally, someone in the Secretariat advised the work stations that this peculiar language must be constructed and expressed in the observation report which purports to say on its face that the votes are invalid and the recount is invalid. That is totally wrong and we believe it is part of an unholy conspiracy and we have drawn that to the attention of Mr Lowenfield and the Commission,” he related.
Secretariat investigating
The Guyana Elections Commission took the step to put aside the tabulation of those disputed boxes until
the Secretariat can investigate and submit a report to the Commission, according to Government-appointed Commissioner Vincent Alexander. The report of the Secretariat is expected to be presented today and the Commission will determine the way forward. “Here we have this apparent cluster so what has been decided is that the Secretariat needs to do an investigation into this matter and to render a report on this matter before we proceed to make a determination in relation to those ballots,” Alexander said. “We said to the Secretariat ‘tell us what is the status’ and if that is so [that the documents are in the possession of GECOM] then the Secretariat should be able to tell us. For the time being at the level of this operation, the information was not available and it was not in the place where it should have been,” he added.
Presiding Officer
However, a Presiding Officer at the Montrose Primary School – one of the disputed polling places, took to social media to explain what exactly happened there. “Throughout this entire election shenanigans, I chose to remain quiet but now that the polling place which I worked at was brought into question, I cannot keep quiet anymore. On behalf of the Presiding Officers that worked at the Montrose Primary School, please note that this is a lie!... All documents for the four (4) Polling Stations were submitted to the DRO as per instructions by the Clerk to the RO... The
APNU/AFC GECOM Commissioner Vincent Alexander
original SOP attached would explain the desperation to lie! This is beyond ridiculous now! “PS: The Presiding Officers were given specific instructions not to seal the ballot boxes without the DRO being present to verify what was placed in the boxes and these instructions were complied with,” Wendy Ann wrote on her Facebook page. Nandlall said he is hopeful that Lowenfield can submit those documents to the Commission so that the process is not delayed. “They [the POs] received instructions to put these things separately and they complied with those instructions. So, it is a mere innocuous irregularity which is being magnified, in a desperate attempt, to gigantic proportions to suggest that there is some wrongdoing. There is no wrongdoing. The ballots are in the box and the Statements of Poll are accurate. The ancillary and miscellaneous documents were wrongfully separated and conveyed separately to the Returning Officer and is in the custody of the Commission as they should be,” Nandlall noted.
APNU/AFC now rejects OAS eyewitness reports as ‘foreign interference’
…says only Caricom team credible for Guyana
G
eneral Secretary for the coalition A Partnership for National Unity, (APNU), Joseph Harmon on Friday called the Organisation of American States’ (OAS) most recent statement on Guyana’s electoral process ‘foreign interference.’ Harmon was at the time speaking with reporters in the makeshift media centre erected at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) and was asked to respond to the OAS’s damming report in light of faith placed in the scrutineers from the Caribbean Community (Caricom). Those observers are still to make a pronouncement on the recount process and according to Harmon, their report is expected to be persuasive to the outcome of the process. The APNU/AFC Executive was at the time speaking to the litany of allegations being raised by the party and purportedly now being probed by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). He told reporters “they [Caricom team] having been here
General Secretary of APNU/AFC Joseph Harmon
for the entire period, they like us would have seen on a daily basis the genie that is emerging out of these boxes when they are opened.” According to Harmon, APNU/ AFC trusts that the Caricom team “will make an honest assessment of what they saw” and that they
would submit a report to GECOM that speaks to the credibility of the process. Asked to respond to the OAS report since those observers would have also been on the ground at the ACCC venue witnessing the activity from day one, Harmon suggested this not to be the case. Lambasting the OAS, Harmon indicated to reporters that the OAS observers were not as involved in the recount process as the Caricom team, but declined responding to the specifics raised, saying, “I don’t know where they got that from.” According to Harmon, GECOM has, in fact, begun deliberating on the concerns raised by the party, saying, “We recognise the Elections Commission as being the competent authority, we recognise the Caricom mission that is here as a credible interlocutor in the affairs of Guyana and, therefore, we would rely on those processes.” Referencing the OAS, he told media operatives “other persons who are sitting on the outskirts observing things and making declarations even while the process
is still going; to preempt a ruling of a Chairman of the Elections Commission is in my view stepping beyond just international relations and is stepping into the bounds, in my view of interference.”
Peaceful transition
That body in its report on the Guyana elections and subsequent recount of votes cast had called for a peaceful transition of power. According to the OAS in its report earlier this week, “the people of Guyana have been patient and they now deserve a peaceful transition of Government based on the majority vote as reflected in the recount and in support of democracy and the rule of law, which all OAS member states expect to be upheld.” The 33-member bloc of nations which has maintained a local presence at the ongoing National Recount said it has no reason to doubt that the results that will come out of the process will be credible. In a statement on Thursday, the OAS, of which Guyana is a
OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro
member, concluded that “despite some inconsistencies in the electoral materials reviewed during the recount, as is normally the case in any electoral process, the OAS Mission has no reason to doubt that the results emanating from the recount will be credible.” As such, it said, “a declaration based on these results would lead to the installation of a legitimate Government.”
