Incertidumbre en Guyana: la Corte decide la competencia sobre el escrutinio de las elecciones
Guyana election: Chief Justice to rule today
Chief Justice Roxanne George will on Wednesday rule in a case that has stalled the declaration of results in Guyana’s landmark elections to determine which party will handle the country’s oil bonanza.
The chief justice yesterday heard the case filed by private citizen Reeaz Hollander, backed by attorneys from the Opposition PPP, that the returning officer, or the chief of Guyana’s largest electoral district, breached electoral laws when he declared the unverified count of the votes cast.
The process of verification is referred to in law as “counting of the votes polled” and is provided for by Section 84 (1) of the Representation of the People Act, Chapter 1:03.
District Four had 897 polling stations but the returning officer only allowed others to be present for the tabulation of 421 Statements of Poll, and aborted the process after. He then certified the votes counted and handed it to the country’s chief elections officer, who went ahead and prepared a final report of all ten electoral districts for the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to declare a winner.
But the High Court granted an injunction blocking the declaration of the results. The chief justice’s ruling will determine what happens next.
Six affidavits were presented in the case yesterday, including from the returning officer Clairmont Mingo and the Deputy Chief Elections Officer Roxanne Meyers.
According to Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes, representing Hollader, the affidavits of Meyers, Bond and Trotman all agree that the process described in law was suspended sometime on the evening of Thursday last, and it was to resume yesterday. Their witness was different from that of the returning officer who claimed that the entire process was completed on the night of Wednesday, March 4.
The returning officer swore to the court that at around 11:00 am Wednesday he began feeling unwell and went upstairs to instruct Senior Clerk Michelle Miller to continue the process. He said that he had to be rushed to the hospital, but again left Miller in charge.
He said that by that evening, Miller, along with others, inputted information, purportedly from the Statements of Poll, into the computer and then produced a spreadsheet. That information was then used by Mingo to produce a tabulation which he then declared on Thursday at around 2 pm.
However, the deputy chief elections officer, in her evidence, stated that sometime on Wednesday the use of the spreadsheet was discontinued, and the process was reverted to verification from the Statements of Poll.
Mendes also argued that it is the responsibility of the returning officer to do the adding up, but that he can appoint other elections officers. In this case, he said, Miller was a senior clerk and not an elections officer and so she could not have been used or designated by the returning officer.
He said that if the legal process is not followed it could lead to mistrust, suspicion and lack of confidence in results declared, and so there should be no reason why the court should not order to set aside the declaration of the returning officer.
Senior Counsel Neil Boston, representing Mingo, argued that the returning officer can adopt whatever methodology he decides he will pursue to come up with the results. Boston said the returning officer can sit with the persons who are entitled to be there and go through the Statements of Poll, or he can prepare a spreadsheet from the Statements he has and thereafter declare the amount of votes received by each party.
Boston argued that the returning officer is duty-bound to rely on the Statements of Poll which were remitted to him form the various polling places. According to Boston, the returning officer does not have to go through a period of resolving discrepancies that arise in relation to the Statements of Polls.
He said resolving any dispute is provided for after a declaration of the count is made, with Section 84 (2) providing for a recount.
Boston further argued that even if Mingo did not comply by doing a count in the presence of persons who are entitled to be there, it does not invalidate what was done nor does it invalidate the declaration he made.
The Chief Justice said that there didn’t seem to have been any uniform methodology in all regions as to how 84 (1) was to be applied.
Comisión Electoral de Guyana reitera compromiso con labor
La presidenta de la Comisión Electoral de Guyana (Gecom, por su sigla en inglés), Claudette Singh, manifestó este martes el compromiso de los seis comisionados para completar su labor y presentar los resultados de los comicios generales celebrados hace una semana, tras la decisión del Tribunal Supremo.
En una nota difundida por medios oficiales, Singh afirmó que era consciente del «sentido de urgencia con el que la Comisión debe completar su trabajo, por lo que se anticipa que habrá un mayor nivel de compromiso».
La funcionaria aseguró que las autoridades electorales evaluarán los próximos pasos a seguir en el proceso, despuñes que la presidenta del Tribunal Supremo de Guyana, Roxane George-Wiltshire, decidiera que tienen competencia para analizar y decidir sobre el tema.
Ante el retraso del anuncio de los resultados obtenidos el pasado 2 de marzo, el Partido Progresista Popular (PPP) presentó una solicitud para que se haga el recuento de los votos emitidos en la Región Cuatro del país, Demerara-Mahaica, ya que no fueron completamente verificados.
Esta región es la más grande del país y cuenta 285.618 votantes de 660.998 registrados, por lo que los resultados obtenidos son relevantes para la elección de las nuevas autoridades.
Por su parte, representantes del Centro Carter denunciaron algunas irregularidades en el proceso, por lo que reiteraron la importancia de un reconteo de votos para mantener la transparencia del proceso.
$300 million of ExxonMobil oil revenue hangs in the balance after contentious election in Guyana remains undecided
Prosperity hovered on the horizon of Guyana, a small South American country, after ExxonMobil discovered eight billion barrels of oil off its coast late last year, but a contentious election has left the expected $300 million in revenue without a sworn-in president to control it more than a week after voters cast their ballots.
Guyana Chief Justice Roxanne George began hearing the case Tuesday that will determine whether or not the country’s election commission will be mandated to recount the votes of more than half of the polling stations in an area known as Region Four. Opposition leaders have decried voter fraud and incorrect tabulations inflated to tilt support in favor of the sitting President David Granger, whose supporters predominantly consist of African descendants who were brought to Guyana as slaves when it was a British colony.
Racial tensions between Granger’s APNU+AFC coalition and the opposing People’s Progressive Party (PPP), supported mostly by Guyanese of East Indian descent who were brought to Guyana as indentured servants, have continued to stir, resulting in riots and violent protests, even as international entities, including the U.S. State Department, called for Granger not to assume the presidency for a consecutive term and instead wait for a voter recount.
PPP presidential candidate Irfaan Ali, a 40-year-old former housing minister who has also come under scrutiny as questions about his academic qualifications swirled, has said he is confident of victory.
«We call on President Granger to avoid a transition of government which we believe would be unconstitutional as it would be based on a vote tabulation process that lacked credibility and transparency,» the U.S. said in a joint statement with the heads of the British and Canadian High Commissions. «A fair and free process is vital for the maintenance and reinforcement of democracy in Guyana.»
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also met with the Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland on Monday to discuss the correct transition of power for Guyana.
In late February, Guyana sent its first shipment of one million barrels of oil to markets in Asia and the U.S. as part of a production-sharing agreement.
Officials say Guyana will earn $300 million as its share this year, but the figure will jump to $5 billion by 2025, when crude from a third oil field begins to flow. Foreign direct investment from oil-related activities is nearing $1 billion.
Under terms of the deal with Exxon, the nation of fewer than one million people gets a 2 percent royalty and 50 percent of sales after the consortium recovers its investment from every shipment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
VOLVER
