While the APNU+AFC’s Candidate and lawyer, Roysdale Forde has told the Nation that the Representation of the People Act makes no explicit requirement for the verification of votes, one other legal mind is saying that this sort of reasoning is false and preposterous.
Specifically, Attorney-at-Law Sanjeev Datadin said that Section 84 of the Act mandates clearly that when the Regional Officer is tabulating Statement of Polls, he or she must do so in the presence of certain persons. Datadin noted that the law allows for persons deemed appropriate by the Returning Officer to be present.
He then made the argument that before persons come to observe the elections, they have to get permission from the Foreign Affairs Ministry as well as the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). Datadin said that this was satisfied so it therefore means that the observers present during the tabulation of votes for the 2020 elections are deemed appropriate to be in the presence of the Returning Officer and are therefore allowed to be there as set out in the law.
Further to this, Datadin outlined that the law states that the Returning Officer cannot ascertain the results by himself since he has to do it in the presence of others.
“So to say that he does not have to verify it (the Region Four results) with anyone is false. That is false legal reasoning. How does he ascertain the results when the law says that persons have to be present with him? They are part of the verification process so what he is saying is preposterous…,” the lawyer argued.
He further contended that what Forde has done is a total perversion of the statute. “He has taken the clear words and clear meanings of the statute and twisted it to suit his interest,” the PPP Candidate concluded.
( Forde’s full statement can be seen using this link https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=219316395877466&id=694735317301702&_rdr)
