The three Government-nominated Commissioners of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Vincent Alexander, Desmond Trotman and Charles Corbin were absent from a meeting that was called today by the Chair, Justice (Retired) Claudette Singh.
Sources at the Commission have indicated that the commissioners were absent because they needed time to study the ruling that was made by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) yesterday in the matter involving the interpretation of Article 177 (2) (b) of the Guyana Constitution, which entails the election of a president.
Opposition Member and Former Attorney General, Anil Nandlall has taken umbrage at the absenteeism of the commissioners; labeling it another “delay tactic”.
In a Facebook post earlier today, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Member said that “the truth is that this is another shameless tactic to delay the declaration of the final results and possibly, to facilitate some subterfuge in the making”.
He added, “each of these actions are being noted by a patient Guyanese public for future references. Reckoning day shall soon come. Let us see for how long they will be able to sustain these nefarious artifices. Time and history are on our side-the side of Democracy and the Rule of Law. People’s Power shall triumph in the end.”
Nandlall argued that the CCJ delivered its ruling at 3pm, and within an hour, the Court posted its Written Judgment on its website, accessible publicly and sent it to all the lawyers involved in the case. Every news outfit in Guyana had a copy or access to a copy of that Judgment, momentarily, thereafter.
By 18:00 hours yesterday evening, every electronic media outlet published a story on the Judgment delivered by the Caribbean Court of Justice. Today, each of the three newspapers enjoying daily circulation within Guyana, dedicated several of their pages to the coverage of that Judgment.
He said that anyone familiar with Judgments will confirm that the Judgment handed down by the CCJ is, having regard to the importance of the issues raised, perhaps one of the shortest Judgments ever delivered and expressed in the clearest possible language.
“In my considered view, the authors of that document deliberately ensured that they were concise, precise and as crystally clear as possible. Every person with whom I have spoken and who have some familiarity with the judgment proclaimed to have understood it largely because of the simplicity and clarity with which it was expressed. After all this nation has endured, thus far, to be met with the bizarre news that GECOM’s meeting scheduled to take place at 1:30 today, was postponed because the three Government Commissioners requested time to ‘study the Judgment’ not only surpasses the limit of ludicrosity but constitutes a grave test of the collective patience of the majority of Guyanese,” he said.
