The Commissioners of the Guyana Elections Commission who were nominated by the People’s Progressive Party have objected to a request by the Chief Elections Officer for a meeting of the Commission to be convened for him to hand in his final report on the elections.
That final report is expected to contain the results of the elections from the 10 Returning Officers across Guyana.
Last evening, the website of the Guyana Elections Commission published all of the declarations from the regions.
In a Saturday night statement, PPP nominated Commissioners Robeson Benn, Bibi Shadick and Sase Gunraj said they will not be attending any meeting to receive the report if it is convened by the Chairperson of the Elections Commission while an injunction remains in place blocking final declaration.
“These matters continue to engage the attention of the Chief Justice, Roxanne George, sitting in the High Court. We consider this invitation to meet as a flagrant attempt to breach the Order of Court aforesaid and a naked attempt by the Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, to suborn us to breach an Order of Court and exposing us to liability for contempt of Court”, the three Commissioners said in their statement.
Chief Justice Roxanne George is set to rule at 1:30 this afternoon on a request to dismiss the injunction which prevents a final declaration of the results of the elections before completion of a full verification of Region Four votes.
Commissioners Shadick, Benn and Gunraj said as holders of a constitutional offices, they are at all times obligated to obey the Constitution and other laws of Guyana and they consider “the invitation to meet as not only a violation of our duty to uphold the Constitution but also an invitation to subvert the course of justice”.
The Chief Elections Officer letter was a request of the Chairman to set a meeting. It is the Chairman of the Commission, Justice Claudette Singh who would have to set the meeting and invite the Commissioners to meet. No such meeting has been set by the GECOM Chair.
The three Commissioners are maintaining that Section 84 of the Representation of the People Act, Chapter 1:03 of the Laws of Guyana was not complied with by the Returning Officer for Region 4 when he declared the results of the elections for the region.
Because of that belief and the fact that the issue is currently before the Courts, the three Commissioners said they “will not respond to any such or further invitations from the Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield or Chairman of Guyana Elections Commission, Justice Claudette Singh, while the Court proceedings are still extant.”
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