By Feona Morrison
Perhaps Guyana’s ongoing 2020 General and Regional elections deserve a place in the Guinness Book of World Records because in the eyes of PPP/C Executive Member and former Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, “a world record has been broken.”
According to him, “In Guyana, a world record has been broken. The March 02, 2020 elections were held and on June 2, 2020 [Tuesday], three months after, those elections have not yet been concluded because the results of those elections are not yet declared.”
The former Attorney General made these and other assertions Tuesday when he addressed a number of issues related to the ongoing electoral process via Facebook Live.
He expressed that it is very unfortunate, three months after Guyanese went to the polls, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is still to declare the final results for the elections.
He reminded that the laws state that an election is not concluded unless and until the final results are declared. Nandlall then went on to recap the timeline of events that has led to this “unfortunate and disgraceful” state of affairs in the country.
Nandlall said that “the world must be laughing at Guyana.” He insisted that the situation in the country has arrived at this point because the APNU+AFC coalition government has lost the elections by some fifteen to seventeen thousand votes, and has refused to give up governance.
According to him, the grouping of people that make up the coalition government are of an undemocratic nature and have a history, physiology and an ideology of being authoritarians and political dictators.
Added to that, he further said that members of the government have a custom of violating the Constitution, disobeying the Rule of Law and trampling upon the canons and principles of democracy.
Nandlall added, “You find now that three months after the elections results are known they [APNU+AFC] are refusing to give up the government in accordance with the law, in accordance with the Constitution. And they remain in government squatting.”
The PPP/C Executive Member also said that the entire world is also very well aware of the fact that the APNU+AFC used Region 4’s Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo to attempt to perpetrate a most “nasty and vulgar fraud” in relation to the tabulation of Region 4 results.
“…This man Clairmont Mingo attempted to put into APNU’s account by using a spreadsheet, not the SoPs, to tabulate the votes, attempting to fraudulently give to APNU over 25, 000 ballots that APNU did not gain at the elections. So as to surpass the lead which the PPP would have accumulated in nine other regions in the country as well as in Region 4.”
He continued, “We [PPP/C] lost Region 4, but gained a huge lead in the other regions which would have compensated for the votes we would have lost in Region 4. And in the end we would have emerged the winner by some fifteen to seventeen votes. So they [APNU+AFC] used Mingo, a Returning Officer and an agent of GECOM to use a fraudulent spreadsheet to allocate to them some 25,000 extra votes, fraudulently in Region 4, so that they could get an unassailable lead over the PPP/C.”
Of course, Mingo’s clumsy attempt to do so in the presence of the world and agents of political parties and the diplomatic community failed, Nandlall reminded.
The idea of a national recount of all ballots cast in the elections came after the results for Region 4 were deemed non-credible by foreign and local observer groups and party agents. Mingo had come under harsh criticism for his declaration, which did not match the figures on the Statements of Poll in the possession of observers and party agents.
As for Mingo, he has been removed from the national recount process currently ongoing at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown. But, the controversial Returning Officer is still employed by GECOM.
In fact, Mingo is performing functions as Registration Officer for one of GECOM’s offices in Region 5. In the meantime, Nandlall is of the firm belief that Mingo must not be allowed to be part of any electoral process ever again in the history of Guyana because he is dishonest and tainted by corruption.
