The A Partnership for National Unity/ Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC) has filed its second election petition in the High Court of Demerara challenging the March 02, 2020, General and Regional Elections results.
The petition was filed by Senior Counsel Rex McKay, Mayo Robertson, Khemraj Ramjattan, Darren Wade, Gary Best, and Geeta Chandan- Edmond, on behalf of applicants Monica Thomas of Lot 58 North Street, Lodge, Georgetown and Bernnan Joette Natasha Nurse of Lot N16-1079 Critchlow Street, Tucville, Georgetown.
The petition this time around deals with allegations of voters’ impersonation and anomalies, which were raised by the party during the national vote recount.
Moreover, it accuses the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) of failing to execute several of its constitutional and statutory duties, including failing to complete the House-to-House registration and verifying the Official List of Electors (OLE).
The petitioners are contending that there were instances where Oath of Identity, which is required by statute for electors voting without identification cards or other acceptable forms of identification, were missing.
Besides, the duo argues that there were instances where the evidence required to validate the legitimacy of ballots cast was missing. Similarly, they noted that several unused ballots were unaccounted for in specific ballot boxes.
The petitioners further added that there were instances where persons appeared to have voted with Oath of Identity but were not on the Official List of Electors (OLE).
Furthermore, they noted that extra ballot papers that were not issued to the particular polling station were found in ballot boxes without any requisite documentation and where poll books were missing.
On top of that, the duo cited instances where the evidence of the polling activities was not recorded in the available poll books while noting that ballots cast were unstamped, and those were evidence to validate the issuance of ballots to proxies which were also missing.
In light of the glaring inconsistencies, irregularities, and the absence of statutory documents pointed out in the petition, the party is asking for the following: an order to declare the elections null and void as it violates the Constitution, the Representative of the People Act and Order 60. They are also asking to nullify the declaration of President Dr. Irfaan Ali as the winner of the elections.
Among other things, the duo asks the High Court to declare that the Guyana Elections Commission erred in its constitutional and statutory duty when it failed to complete the House-to-House registration process and conduct an efficient verification process of entries on the List of Electors inclusive of new registrants.
As a consequence thereof, they want the Court to order fresh elections in 90 days or such other reasonable timeframe or 180 days of the date of an Order setting aside the elections. And any other Order the Court deems just.
To prove the allegations set out in the petitions, the party provided a table showing the results of the March 02, 2020 elections, which were gazetted on August 20, 2020, and a breakdown of anomalies and irregularities by each district.
On the first petition, the party produced a copy of the national vote recount order, a copy of the notification of the elections’ results in the Official Gazette, among other things.
Notably, the Statements of Poll (SOP) from each polling station were not on the list then and now, although this would have provided the coalition with some basis for claiming they won the elections. They have made this claim despite the 33-day recount establishing that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) won the elections by 15,416 votes.
The respondents named are Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield, representative of APNU+AFC David Granger, representative of the Federal United Party Horatio Edmonson, representative of the PPP Bharrat Jagdeo, representative of the Liberty and Justice Party John Flores, representative of the New Movement Asha Kissoon, Representative of the United Republican Party Vishnu Bandhu, representative of Change Guyana Abedin Ali, representative of the People’s Republican Party Patrick Bourne, representative of A New and United Guyana Jonathan Bourne, representative of The Citizenship Initiative Shazaam Ally and representative of Organisation for Victory of the People Gerald Perreira.
