Senior Counsel Neil Boston addressing members of the media outside the Supreme Court yesterday. (Department of Public Information photo)
March 24 2020
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo wants all statements of poll (SOPs) for votes cast in Region Four at the March 2 general and regional elections to be produced to the court by the Guyana Election Commission (GECOM).
This request was made by his attorneys yesterday before Justice Franklyn Holder, who is hearing a challenge by Jagdeo to the legality of the March 13th declaration of results for Electoral District Four (Region Four), made by Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo.
Senior Counsel Neil Boston, who represents GECOM, has, however, said that those documents will not be provided.
He is adamant that no such request could be made by Jagdeo as the law does not so provide for any such documents to be produced during the proceedings currently engaging the court’s attention.
He said that as a matter of fact and law, such documents could only be asked for and produced in an elections petition case.
“This is not the elections judge and we’re not hearing an elections petition, so Mr. Jagdeo can’t ask for disclosure of those documents,” Boston asserted.
The lawyer said that there is no such thing as discovery in the current proceedings.
“You can’t want to bring through the back door, something that is expressly shut out from coming through the front door in a process like this. That has to be done by an election petition,” Boston said.
He was at the time speaking to the media following an in-chamber hearing before Justice Holder, who is also presiding over a lawsuit filed by APNU+AFC candidate Ulita Grace Moore, who has moved to halt a recount of ballots cast at the polls.
At yesterday’s hearing, with the consent of attorneys on both sides, the judge consolidated both Moore’s and Jagdeo’s matters, which will be heard together as they both relate to the same subject matter.
Speaking to the media, also, was Opposition-appointed Commissioner Sase Gunraj who, while stopping short of saying the law so provides, and unable to point to any legal provision that allow for SOPs to be produced at this stage said “it matters not.”
He said that there was a very stringent objection by Boston to have the SOPs disclosed even as he questioned the reason for what he said was not only a stringent, but what he described as “an almost violent objection” to disclose the documents.
When pressed by reporters as to whether such a request could only be made in an elections petition, Gunraj said “it matters not,” adding that elections are in the possession of the people.
“It is not dogs and cats that vote in elections. There are citizens just like you and I,” Gunraj said.
On this point he said that citizens who vote have a right to proper and transparent processes for the declaration of their results, adding that the SOPs which are the conclusive evidence of the results of those elections are an entitlement of electors who participated in the process.
He opposed Boston’s view that the current hearing before the judge is not the forum and should otherwise be for an elections petition, before adding that the documents should not be hidden but be able to withstand scrutiny.
He said he was not making his comments in the capacity of counsel, but only from the observations he has made as an elections commissioner before adding that he was sure that Jagdeo’s attorney’s would lead the relevant arguments to support his application.
Moore’s attorney Mayo Robertson said that the case is set to continue at 10 this morning and the judge is expected to rule on whether or not the SOPs are to be produced.
Meanwhile, Boston said that the entire case is likely to be fully dispensed with by this weekend.
Attorney Anil Nandlall, one of Jagdeo’s attorneys, was absent from court yesterday. Stabroek News understands that he is unwell, but made his presentations to the judge via Skype.
Jagdeo and President David Granger had agreed to a national recount, which was slated to begin last week Monday.
An independent high-level team from CARICOM had traveled to Guyana to supervise the recount of ballots due to controversy over the tabulation of the votes cast for Region Four, which opposition parties as well as international and local observers say was not done in a transparent and credible manner.
Following the granting of injunctions to Moore halting the recount, however, the team has since withdrawn.
The CARICOM-facilitated full recount was announced last Saturday by CARICOM Chair, Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados, who said Granger had made a request for CARICOM to field a team to supervise the recounting of the ballots in all regions. Jagdeo had agreed to this move, which followed a contentious vote count for Region Four that resulted in allegations of fraud.
