GUYANA | Nandlall to probe death certificates - No word on the 49 Ballot Boxes without poll documents in 2020 elections.

GEORGETOWN,  Guyana, August 30, 2022 - While Attorney General Anil Nandlall has announced on his facebook page that there will be a probe into how alleged erroneous immigration and registration data of citizens ending up in the hands of  the APNU+AFC, back in 2020, the government is yet to say when it will launch an investigation into why there were none of the required statutory documents in 49 of the ballot boxes in PPP/C strongholds.

The Statutory poll documents are legally required to be placed in every ballot box, and used as proof of compliance to the Representation of People Act, Chapter 1:03 in ensuring the validity and credibility of every vote and count.

Section 83 (10) (a) ‘Procedure on closing of the poll,’ in the Representation of the People Act (ROPA) mandates the presiding officer to “place the sealed envelope containing the counted and rejected ballots papers in the ballot box, and secure and seal, with his seal and with the seals of such of the duly appointed candidates and polling agents as desire to affix their seals, to the ballot box in such manner that it cannot be opened and that nothing can be inserted therein or taken therefrom without breaking the seals;”

The 49 ballot boxes without statutory documents are primarily from the PPP/C’s strongholds and form part of the Coalition’s election petition in the court challenging the 2020 Elections.

Despite the  matter being before the courts and have not yet been determined, the government has gone ahead with its allegation that the data used by the (APNU+AFC) Coalition to determine that dead persons and those not within the jurisdiction on Election Day but recorded as having voted were “fictitious, false, misleading, and untrue claims as part of its political campaign about dead people, and migrants voting as well as claims of multiple votes being cast at polls.”

During the Recount, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) queried and protested the APNU+AFC being in possession of death certificates which were used in the claim that dead persons voted.  

The APNU+AFC maintained that the law allows access to birth and death certificates at the fee, which at the time was $300.00.

The  Registration of Births and Deaths Act, Chapter 44:01, Section 40 (2) stipulates, “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, including Nandlall, had claimed that such access is a violation of the Information Act 2011, but then Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams SC, fired back stating Section 3 (1) of the Act allows for such access.

The PPP/C also queried the claim that there were persons who were abroad on Election Day and voted were in Guyana.

Guyana elections are based on Proportional Representation (PR). In the PR system every vote counts, and elections can be won or lost on one vote.

Without a determination by the Judiciary, the branch of government that adjudicates on interpretation of law and culpability,

Guyana elections are based on Proportional Representation (PR). In the PR system every vote counts, and elections can be won or lost on one vote.

There are two election petitions in the court challenging the 2020 Elections.