Attorney General (AG) and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall says that he plans to write the Chief Justice, Roxane George to request that security be beefed up at the location where the Statements of Poll (SOPs) and Statements of Recount (SORs) from the highly contentious March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections will be stored.
This comes days after the CJ ordered that the documents be handed over to the Registrar of the Supreme Court for “safekeeping”, right after she dismissed one of the two petitions filed by APNU+AFC supporters challenging the validity of the results that saw the return of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) to power.
The AG said that it is imperative that these documents be kept safe. He opined that they be photocopied and shared with the parties that contested the elections.
“…I believe I will write to the Chief Justice and request that the documents be photocopied, and the parties be allowed to keep copies. And secondly, wherever the documents are going to be stored by the Registrar, that it was be adequately secured. If they were prepared to steal an entire government, if they get an opportunity to steal those Statements of Poll, oh Lord, they will do that!” Nandlall said last evening.
The order to have the documents handed over, was made after the Attorney-at-law representing defendants from the PPP/C, Douglas Mendes, reminded the Court that the Representation of the Peoples Act allows the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) to destroy all electoral documents. The CEO, Keith Lowenfield, is currently before the courts facing electoral fraud charges for alleged misconduct during those elections.
