Government-appointed Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Commissioner, Vincent Alexander on Friday claimed that the electoral body’s Secretariat—headed by Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield—had written to the Chief Immigration Officer in order to ascertain whether persons identified as voted by APNU/AFC agents were in fact out of the jurisdiction on Elections Day.

The disclosure has since been observed as exposing an informal alliance between Lowenfield’s Secretariat, since this information had not been ordered by the Commission nor shared outside of the Secretariat to any of the other Commissioners.

Addressing media operatives outside the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), Alexander revealed that “in relation to the migrants, that

information some days ago would have been forwarded to the Chief Immigration Officer [by the Secretariat].”

He was at the time responding to queries that the Secretariat had, in fact, started investigating the claims of dead and migrated voters.
According to Alexander, “they have, in fact, embarked on the

process of discerning and determining whether the information is evidential.”

Unholy alliance
Responding to the “startling disclosure that the Secretariat has written, or is about to write certain public authorities requesting certain information relative to the allegations which APNU/AFC have been making” People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) tabulation agent, Anil Nandlall reminded that the Secretariat is subordinate to the Commission.
“The Secretariat under the Constitution and under the various electoral laws is a unit that is subordinate to and subject to the Commission; the Secretariat must and can only act upon the instruction and directions of the Commission…”
Reminding that no Commission decision was ever made for the request to be made to the Immigration Officer, Nandlall observed that this is being disclosed by Alexander despite the Commission and other Commissioners being unaware of such decisions.
Nandlall has since concluded this to have exposed “an unholy collaborating between Government Commissioners and certain elements within the Secretariat acting in consort to carry out the agenda of the APNU/AFC.”
A PPP/C Commissioner had earlier told reporters the Commission has made no such decision and further, no such diktat has been passed down to the Secretariat for implementation.
According to the PPP/C Commissioner, “GECOM has taken no decision, the Commission has taken absolutely no decision in so far as it relates to treating with any of the issues that have arisen or may arise during this recount process, in so far as they are recorded, either in individual observation reports or compiled observation reports.”
He told reporters “I want to reject out of hand any contention that GECOM has sought or will seek information from any extraneous agency to deal with that and to conduct any investigation, on its own volition or otherwise into these allegations that were raised during this period.”
Gunraj informed media operatives that “at the Commission level, no information was received from any political party who contested the elections on March 2, 2020, and the Commission has taken no decision to investigate or to send it anywhere.”
Reminding that the Commission is not in fact in receipt of any such documentation, Gunraj cautioned that if indeed the “Secretariat is engaged in such activities, they obviously are engaging in a frolic of their own and will definitely face the consequences.”
The Commissioner used the occasion at the media centre’s podium to remind that the legal ambit under which GECOM functions “does not include investigation of any of these things.”
He quipped that had the Commission been endowed with such investigative powers “we might have already investigated and made findings on the action of the [Region Four] Returning Officer (Clairmont) Mingo in relation to the fraudulent declaration that he attempted to perpetuate on this nation thereby attempting to thwart the will of the electorate.”

Undermining GECOM
Meanwhile, the party in a public missive on Friday also weighed in on Alexander’s pronouncement saying “it is worthy to note that none of the three Opposition-nominated Commissioners are aware of such a decision taken at the level of the Commission nor was there any such public announcement by the Commission itself.”
As such, the party has since concluded, “it appears that Alexander, a central figure in the APNU/AFC plot to rig the elections, has abrogated unto himself the role of GECOM spokesperson.”
The party said, “he seems to be working with Roxanne Myers and others of the Secretariat to undermine the Commission and to give credence to APNU+AFC’s false allegations.”
The PPP/C has since called on GECOM CEO, Lowenfield “to urgently say whether he or the Chair has given directions to embark on an exercise outside of their remit.”