GUYANA | GECOM to turn over alleged "electoral Fraud" documents to Attorney General

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, September 9, 2022 - The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) says it will be providing to Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, the documents he requested relating to the national recount of the March 2, 2020, General and Regional Elections.

Nandlall  wants the immigration and registration documents allegedly submitted to GECOM by the then A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition government, with the names of dead and migrant persons who voted in the elections. 

The AG said the documents are needed to embark on an investigation into the claims made by the coalition.

Nandlall is not very happy with statements made by the Coalition that dead persons and those not within the jurisdiction on Election Day voted in the march 2020 elections thus rendering the elections fraudulent, and placing the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) in a position to win the elections.

The PPP/C had attacked the APNU+AFC for accessing death certificates, claiming it was a violation of law.  However, the Coalition replied by pointing out that the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, Chapter 44:01 allows such access.

As per Section 40 (2) of the Act, “Everyone shall be entitled, on payment of the fees prescribed by the Minister by order, to search the indices between the hours of ten o’ clock in the morning and four o’clock in the afternoon of every day except on public holidays and Saturdays, and to have extracted therefrom a sealed certificate of birth in Form 4 or a sealed certificate of death in Form 5, as the case may be.”

The PPP/C countered that the Access Information Act (2011) does not grant such access. However, the Coalition rubbished the PPP/C’s contention, noting that Section 3 (1) of the Information Act permits access.

When Nandlall made the request to the GECOM, Shadow Minister of Legal Affairs, Roysdale Forde advised that  if should GECOM accede to Nandlall’s  request it “will now manifest its inability to be impartial and independent by giving documentation it received and ought itself to have long confirmed to a participant in the elections who benefitted from the fraud, substitute voting and voter impersonation, to confirm.”

Noting that the information requested by Nandlall forms party of election Petition 99 now before the court, Forde, is of the opinion that Nandlall is fearful of the Election Petition and thus ran to GECOM.

Petition 99, which challenged the final elections results declared by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on August 2, 2020, was nullified on the grounds of non-compliance of service on the second named respondent, former president David Granger.

Forde observed that the AG’s proposed investigation would be under his direction and that of  his party (the PPP/C), and will therefore not enjoy the confidence of the people. 

Further, he contended, “the proposed investigation will not provide the legitimacy the Government is seeking.

In his request to be supplied with the information, the Attorney General said he wanted to dispel the continuous claims by the Opposition that votes were cast for persons who were found to be dead and persons who live overseas at the last elections.

While GECOM had accepted the documents, it never conducted any investigation of the claims.

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