Probe into 2020 elections: GECOM votes to release documents submitted by APNU/AFC in attempt to discredit voters’ list

…as Opposition Commissioners attempt to block release

September 7, 2022 --- Source -- https://www.inewsguyana.com/pr...scredit-voters-list/

Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Justice Claudette Singh

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has voted to release documents requested by Attorney General Anil Nandlall, SC, to investigate Opposition claims of rigging at the 2020 elections, notwithstanding efforts by the Opposition-nominated Commissioners to block this.

The matter came up for a vote at GECOM’s statutory meeting on Tuesday, during which the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) nominated Commissioners vehemently objected to the release of the documents.

According to People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) nominated Commissioner Manoj Narayan, the Opposition’s objections to the release of the documents were premised on reasons that include their claims that the information in the documents are contained in the election petition. According to Narayan, the Government side argued that this was not true.

People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) nominated Commissioner Manoj Naraya

Narayan said that the Opposition Commissioners also advanced the argument that GECOM is a constitutional agency and does not have to release the documents. However, Narayan noted that the Commission, as custodians of the requested documents, had no issue with cooperating with a State agency.

“The Commissioners who were appointed by the now Opposition, they were all against it. They voted against it. They did not want any of those documents to be released to the Attorney General, even though on the other side (we) argued that in the interest of fairness and transparency, we need to release those documents as requested,” Narayan said.

According to Narayan, GECOM Chair, Retired Justice Claudette Singh voted in favour of releasing the documents. As such, he explained that the documents will be released as soon as possible.

The Opposition nominated GECOM Commissioners are Vincent Alexander, Charles Corbin and Desmond Trotman, while on the Government side sits Narayan, Sase Gunraj and Clement Rohee.

Private information

Last week, Nandlall had written GECOM seeking information on how private citizens’ data was provided to it by the then ruling APNU/AFC during the controversial 2020 General and Regional Elections.

It is a first step in the direction of an investigation that the AG had previously announced would be held into how immigration and registration data of citizens ended up in the hands of APNU/AFC; data it then submitted to GECOM in an effort to discredit the voters’ list.

According to his letter addressed to GECOM Chairperson, Retired Justice Claudette Singh, Nandlall noted that APNU/AFC delivered to GECOM, documents claiming to show that dead people and persons who were overseas on Election Day, voted at the elections, as well as documents to claim that there were cases of multiple voting.

Opposition-nominated Commissioners, Vincent Alexander, Charles Corbin and Desmond Trotman

“These allegations continue to be peddled in the public domain by leaders and representatives of the aforesaid political entity. At the time and until now, the impression conveyed is that these documents and/or data were generated by and obtained from the official lawful repository of the specific information, for example, the immigration department, the Guyana Police Force and the General Registrar’s Office.”

“It is important that the relevant State agency enquires into the source of this information, upon whose directions they were sourced and, perhaps, most importantly, to officially reconfirm their inaccuracy, for public record. In the circumstances, I hereby request a copy of these documents to initiate this process,” Nandlall wrote.

In a previous edition of his programme “Issues in the News”, Nandlall had pointed out that back in 2020, when APNU/AFC first made its erroneous claims, the PPP/C did investigations of its own. During its investigations, the PPP/C was able to find many of the persons that APNU/AFC claimed were out of the jurisdiction or dead.

In fact, at the time, many of these persons had come forward to protest against and dispute APNU/AFC’s claims. This publication published several such persons, who had been accused by the then ruling party of being either dead or out of the jurisdiction when their vote was recorded.

Why is the AG writing, it is a government matter. The PPP should write. Party Paramountcy it looks like. 

GPF ask to probe APNU/AFC’s claims of dead, overseas people voting at 2020 polls

Attorney General & Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall S.C.

In light of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) releasing documents pertaining to the March 2020 polls, the Government has requested the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to investigate the claims made by the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) that ballots were cast by dead people and persons living overseas.

Last month, Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall had written GECOM seeking information on how private citizens’ data was provided to it by the then ruling APNU/AFC.

After a vote taken by the seven-member Commission, the elections body last week released to the Office of the Attorney General those documents that were submitted by the then APNU/AFC in its bid to discredit the Official List of Electors (OLE) used in the 2020 General and Regional Elections.

Using those documents provided by GECOM, AG Nandlall has now written Police Commissioner (ag) Clifton Hicken, to ascertain the accuracy of the data gathered by the coalition.

“I am forwarding these documents to you with a request from the Government of Guyana that a special investigation is launched by the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and such other agencies, and or person (s) authorised and supervised by the GPF, to determine the veracity of the data contained in the documents as well the authenticity of some of the documents themselves and all matters and actions of persons connected therewith,” the letter, dated September 14, 2022, sent to the Top Cop by the Attorney General.

Police Commissioner (ag) Clifton Hicken

The PPP/C Government had previously announced that it would be looking into how immigration and registration data of citizens ended up in the hands of APNU/AFC.

In his letter addressed to GECOM Chairperson, Retired Justice Claudette Singh, Nandlall noted that APNU/AFC delivered to GECOM, documents claiming to show that dead people and persons who were overseas on Election Day voted at the elections, as well as documents to claim that there were cases of multiple voting.

“These allegations continue to be peddled in the public domain by leaders and representatives of the aforesaid political entity. At the time and until now, the impression conveyed is that these documents and/or data were generated by and obtained from the official lawful repository of the specific information, for example, the Immigration Department, the Guyana Police Force, and the General Registrar’s Office.”

“It is important that the relevant State agency enquires into the source of this information, upon whose directions they were sourced and, perhaps, most importantly, to officially reconfirm their inaccuracy, for public record. In the circumstances, I hereby request a copy of these documents to initiate this process,” Nandlall wrote.

The AG had previously posited that at the end of the investigation if it is found that laws were breached, culpable persons will face the consequences.

The Opposition-aligned Commissioners at GECOM had objected to the release of the documents in question – a move which Nandlall has since expressed is indicative of the APNU/AFC’s lack of credibility.

“And these are the guys who are repeating the very allegations and are relying upon the allegations in their incredible efforts to impugn the 2020 election results…it is they who are speaking about the information in that document and now the government has signaled an intention to request that document so that it can be investigated so we can know the truth, and the people are objecting, the very people who are peddling the information in that document are now objecting to the document being released so that we can investigate,” Nandlall pointed out.

“These people have no credibility at all, nothing that they do make any sense to anybody,” he further contended. “That is what we have to deal with.”

According to PPP/C-nominated Commissioner Manoj Narayan, the Opposition’s objections to the release of the documents were premised on reasons that include their claims that the information in the documents is contained in the election petition. According to Narayan, the Government side argued that this was not true.

Narayan said that the Opposition Commissioners also advanced the argument that GECOM is a constitutional agency and does not have to release the documents. However, Narayan noted that the Commission, as custodians of the requested documents, had no issue with cooperating with a state agency.

“The Commissioners who were appointed by the now Opposition, they were all against it. They voted against it. They did not want any of those documents to be released to the Attorney General, even though on the other side (we) argued that in the interest of fairness and transparency, we need to release those documents as requested,” Narayan had explained to this publication.

Nevertheless, AG Nandlall has also forwarded his letter which was sent to the GECOM Chair, to the Police Commissioner “to put the government’s request into perspective” and as well as for record in the GPF’s investigation.

Letter: AG calls APNU/AFC’s bluff

Attorney General & Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall S.C.

Dear Editor,

Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall is ‘on the ball’ yet again. This time, in another ‘calling of APNU/AFC’s bluff,’ the astute, perceptive and brave attorney “… has requested that the Guyana Police Force (GPF) investigate the claims made by the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) that ballots were cast by dead people and persons living overseas.” I can feel the fear of APNU/AFC already. They are getting what they wanted (or thought they had wanted) and now it’s choking them to death.

First, let me sound the reminder. It was the APNU/AFC that were accusing GECOM of failing to act on evidence of voter impersonation during the 2020 elections. By the way, this only came up after the initial vote count, as reflected in the certified Statements of Polls (SoPs), was thrown into disarray by the weird ‘permutations and combinations’ from the collusive efforts of the following erstwhile officers: Chief Elections Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Keith Lowenfield; his deputy, Roxanne Myers, and Region Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo.

Let’s keep in mind that APNU/AFC were in the cul-de-sac of their defeat, that was supposed to be concretised from a proper tabulation of the count, based on veritable SoPs. So, their shenanigans of attempted escapes led to a recount that they brokered. This of course eventuated to what all had already known, that is the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) were the victors of the 2020 elections. During and up this point, APNU/AFC kept on trying to derail or ‘illegalise’ the elections by coming up with far too many and frivolous complaints. Ultimately, we are now engrossed in this senseless, last minute ‘tentative désespérée’ claims of voter fraud from the APNU/AFC camp.

I mean, it is crunch time and they are running scared. Why? Their claim all along has been that GECOM has the list of the impersonators but never acted on it. Then why is it that they are against GECOM’s releasing of the very list, their supposed trump card, that they are supposed to be banking on for acquittal? How silly it is to hide behind the sophistry that says “…the details are already in the elections petition submission.”

As we can see, the ‘running for cover’ never stops, so the big original lie now morphs into “… some persons were ‘mistakenly’ included in their evidence which they claim provides proof of voter impersonation at the 2020 General and Regional Elections.”

Editor, the AG is therefore absolutely right. He, on behalf of the Government, has asked that the Guyana Police Force (GPF) investigate these absurd claims made by APNU/AFC) “… that ballots were cast by dead people and persons living overseas.” The fright and embarrassment are growing for APNU/AFC. They never expected that their bluff would have been called. So, proving time at every juncture is driving them towards a ‘dead end.’ It was funny how they got mad when upon request by the AG, the elections body last week released to the Office of the Attorney General “… those documents that were submitted by the then APNU/AFC in its bid to discredit the Official List of Electors (OLE) used in the 2020 General and Regional Elections.” I mean this should have been their ‘grand slam’ moment and conversely the dread of the PPP/C. Instead, it is the reverse.

Again, rightfully and logically so, the next phase is to use those very documents provided by GECOM, for the corroboration of the data gathered by the coalition. Nobody wants to hear about mistakes at this late hour. All honest people want “…the determination of the veracity of the data contained in the documents as well the authenticity of some of the documents themselves and all matters and actions of persons connected therewith.”

After all, APNU/AFC are claiming that they delivered documents “…claiming to show that dead people and persons who were overseas on Election Day voted at the elections, as well as documents to claim that there were cases of multiple voting.” And as the AG pointed out, “These allegations continue to be peddled in the public domain by leaders and representatives of the aforesaid political entity. At the time and until now, the impression conveyed is that these documents and/or data were generated by and obtained from the official lawful repository of the specific information, for example, the Immigration Department, the Guyana Police Force, and the General Registrar’s Office.” What we have then is that all relevant State agencies must probe thoroughly in order to give fairness to APNU/AFC and credibility to themselves.

I guess readers can see why “the Opposition-aligned Commissioners at GECOM had objected to the release of the documents in question, a move which Nandlall has since expressed is indicative of the APNU/AFC’s lack of credibility”. This is obvious.

Succinctly put then, the AG summarised everything, stating that “… these are the guys who are repeating the very allegations and are relying upon the allegations in their incredible efforts to impugn the 2020 election results…it is they who are speaking about the information in that document and now the Government has signalled an intention to request that document so that it can be investigated so we can know the truth, and the people are objecting, the very people who are peddling the information in that document are now objecting to the document being released so that we can investigate.”

Yours truly,
H Singh

Nandlall urges police to probe APNU+AFC voter fraud claims

Sep 19, 2022 News --- Source -- https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...-voter-fraud-claims/

Kaieteur News – Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall SC has written the Commissioner of Police (ag) Mr. Clifton Hicken requesting that a special investigation be launched into the data which he collected from the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) in relation to the Opposition, A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU +AFC) claims of fraudulent voting at the March 2020 elections.

Attorney General Anil Nandlall SC

In a letter dated September 14, 2022, Nandlall wrote to Mr. Hicken asking that the Guyana Police Force (GPF) or any agency or person supervised by the GPF conduct a special probe into the voter impersonation claims. In the correspondence seen by this publication, Nandlall said, “I am forwarding these documents to you with a request from the Government of Guyana that a special investigation be launched by the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and such other agencies and or persons authorised and supervised by the GPF, to determine the veracity of the data contained in the documents as well as the authenticity of some of the documents themselves and all matters and actions of persons connected therewith.”

The letter to the acting Police Commissioner was sent days after Chairperson of GECOM, retired Justice Claudette Singh voted to release documents related to the claims by the Opposition that there were certain data that purport to prove the claims of fraud at the 2020 regional and general elections.

Commissioner of Police (ag) Mr. Clifton Hicken

The decision was made following deliberations at the weekly statutory meeting of GECOM. Nandlall had written to the Chairperson requesting the information. In his letter to the GECOM Chair, Nandlall noted that the APNU+AFC continues to peddle allegations that the deceased persons voted at the elections, that the elections were tainted by multiple voting and that persons who were overseas voted on elections day. Nandlall noted that the allegations continue to be peddled in the public domain without any proof. He said, “At the time and until now, the impression that [is conveyed by the APNU+AFC ] that is these documents and or data were generated by and obtained from the lawful repository of the specific information that is Immigration Department, the Guyana Police Force, and the General Registrar’s Office.”

Nandlall said it is necessary that GECOM releases the documents in its possession to clear the air. Since the documents were released from GECOM, Kaieteur News has seen documents that show a list of just over 500 names, more than 100 Guyanese who were said to be out of the jurisdiction during the 2020 elections were recorded as voted during the controversial polls; proving further, that some amount of irregularities would have occurred during the general elections. Added to this, the opposition has accused GECOM of failing to act on evidence of voter impersonation during the March 2020 elections.

During a recent press conference, APNU+AFC Shadow Minister of Legal Affairs, Roysdale Forde, SC, read the party’s statement in which he noted the reluctance by GECOM to look into the claims of voter fraud submitted by his party. Forde noted, “…Since the initial responses from the Chief Immigration Officer, GECOM has mysteriously ceased to seek confirmation of the other hundreds of names submitted by the Coalition.” “Even worse, Chairperson [Justice Claudette] Singh has declined to act on the irrefutable evidence of significant voter impersonation already in GECOM’s possession. This is a blatant dereliction…” But Kaieteur News understands that when the information was received by GECOM in 2020, nothing was done about it since arguments were that GECOM did not have investigative power and that the information was for an elections petition. Alexander said that Government Commissioners and the Chairwoman, Justice (retd.) Claudette Singh had voted against anything being done with the document.

Police request information from APNU/AFC on 2020 voters’ fraud allegations