APC Thomas was acting in accordance with law – Attorney
– only RO can order removal of persons from building
Regardless of which senior police officer instructed Assistant Police Commissioner (APC) Edgar Thomas to remove the local and international observers along with accredited individuals from the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) command centre, it would have been unlawful for him to do so.
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This is according to prominent Attorney-at-Law and former Speaker of the House, Ralph Ramkarran, who on Saturday told GuyanaTimes that the only authorised person that could have given that order was GECOM’s Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo.
He explained that according to the Representation of the People Act, Section 84 (1), it is the Returning Officer who has the authority to have persons present during the period of tabulating and verifying of votes.
“Certain people are statutorily required to be present like the counting agents of the parties and so on but the Returning Officer has the discretion to allow anyone else who in his opinion ought to be present. So, therefore, the only person who has the authority to instruct the police to remove people is the Returning Officer. Any instruction coming from a source that is not the Returning Officer has no authority to give and the Police Officer [Thomas] was correct in saying that whoever instructed him has no such authority because it is the Returning Officer who must instruct him.”
Only a few days ago, APC Thomas, was removed from his Commanding Officer post for Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) Sub-division A with immediate effect after he reportedly refused to execute an order from one of his superiors.
A source close to the Commander said that on Thursday night, an order was given by a Deputy Commissioner of Police to remove both international and local observers along with GECOM People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) appointed Commissioner from the Region Four Returning Officer’s (RO) office at Hadfield and High Streets, Georgetown.
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