Georgetown: Chief Justice, (Ag) Roxane George-Wiltshire will Wednesday rule on the lawsuit against GECOM over unverified vote counts for Region Four.
Reaz Holladar, a private citizen is represented by a legal team led by Trinidadian Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes, backed by lawyers from the PPP/C. He is challenging the Guyana Elections Commission, (GECOM) its Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield, and Clairmont Mingo, the Returning Officer for Region 4.
The case stems from contentions raised by the main political opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic, (PPP/C) that the votes raised must be verified before they are declared.
On the other side, GECOM lead counsel, Neil Boston S.C is contending that his clients did comply with the law in accordance with what is required before the declaration is made.
Trinidadian Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes asked the Court to examine statements as it relates to the events which transpired prior to when the purported declarations were made by the Returning Officer of Region Four, Clairmont Mingo.
Mendes noted that GECOM presented six affidavits in the case, from a number of persons including Aubrey Norton, the Deputy Chief Elections Officer Roxanne Meyers, and attorneys-at-law James Bond, and the Returning Officer Mingo.
Mingo and GECOM’s CEO Keith Lowenfield sat side-by-side in the courtroom yesterday as Mendes argued that the R.O failed to comply with Section 84 (1) of the Representation of the Peoples Act.
Mendes told the Court that based on the affidavit provided, Mingo left Senior Clerk Michelle Miller to assist with the electoral process after he suddenly fell ill Tuesday night.
“The votes were processed in Mr. Mingo’s absence after he took ill and was rushed to the hospital. When he returned, all the data had been inputted into a computer by Ms. Miller and other clerks who assisted her. Ms. Miller had supervised the data entry process.”
Mendes said that Section 86 (1) of the aforesaid Act states that the Returning Officer can decide which elections officer can assist him.
However, he clarified that Miller did not fall into that category and as such could not be designated to perform such duties by the Returning Officer.
“Anyone else doing the calculation is in breach and violation of the articles set out in the Act.” the Senior Counsel added.
The Senior Counsel explained further, that Mingo’s declaration for Region Four had 897 polling stations and he only allowed for the tabulation of 421 Statement of Polls (SoPs).
“He clearly aborted the process.”
“He then purported to have gone ahead and prepared a final report for the 10 electoral districts despite contentions raised about the stark disparity between the SOPs he had in his possession and the one presented by Sonia Parag– a PPP candidate.”
The next question, the lawyer posited is “whether calculation of the votes was done according to the formula prescribed by law.”
Relying on precedence from the case of Joseph Hamilton versus GECOM the lawyer said it is his view Mingo flouted his duties.
He therefore asked the Court to find the declaration unconstitutional, illegal, null, void and of no effect.
Mendes stressed, too, that the court should issue an order mandating Mingo to follow the relevant electoral laws; it will ensure public trust and confidence in the country’s electoral system.
In an Affidavit of Defence, Mingo disclosed that the process of tabulating the Statements of Poll for District Four commenced at around 22:30pm on Monday, March 2, 2020, under his supervision, in the presence of observers and candidates from the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) and the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC). The Returning Officer noted that though he took ill at around 11:00hrs on March 4, and was rushed to the hospital, the process continued, in his absence, under the supervision of a Senior Clerk, Michelle Miller.
The entire tabulation process, according to him, was completed at around 19:30hrs on March 4. “At that point, I was ready to make a Declaration in accordance with Section 84 of the Representation of the People Act, cap 1:03 but a request was made by the representatives of certain political parties for reconciliation between matters extracted from Statements of Poll in my possession and inputted into the spreadsheet and in about 3 or 4 of the Statements of Poll held by those representatives,” Mingo explained in his Affidavit in Defence.
According to him, the request was accommodated and minor discrepancies were addressed. Mingo noted that while preparing to make the declaration on March 5, 2020, Miller was interrupted by a large contingent of PPP/C representatives, who were demanding “verification” of the entries made into the spreadsheet from the Statements of Poll in GECOM’s possession. Mingo said he found no merit in PPP/C’s request and proceeded to make the declaration of the total number of votes secured by each List of Candidates.
The electoral laws governing the tabulation of Statements of Poll for General and Regional Elections are directory and not mandatory, Senior Counsel Neil Boston argued on Tuesday, even as he maintained that the Returning Officer for Region 4, Clairmont Mingo, did not err when he declared the total number of votes for each Candidate in his District.
According to him, the Returning Officer resorted to a spreadsheet for the final count after there was ruckus and confusion in the Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM’s) Command Centre. However, on the flipside, Trinidad and Tobago’s Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes argued that Mingo failed to follow the correct procedure outlined in Section 84 of the Representation of the People Act. At 14:00hrs today, Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire will decide whether the Returning Officer adhered to the Electoral Laws before issuing his declaration last Thursday (March 5, 2020).
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