Investigation into APNU+AFC objections… Gunraj, Alexander give conflicting accounts of Claudette Singh’s actions

Commissioners representing the major sides of the political divide are giving conflicting accounts about what is being done by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chair, Justice Claudette Singh with regard to GECOM ‘s investigation into claims of irregularities being raised by the APNU+AFC Coalition.

Commissioner Vincent Alexander said on Thursday that Singh wrote to the Chief Immigration Officer to seek confirmation of a list of names provided by the Coalition of persons it claims to have been out of the jurisdiction on Election Day, when votes were fraudulently cast in their names.

On the other hand, Commissioner Sase Gunraj said that the Commission has not made any decision on how it will deal with the allegations being brought forward by the Coalition, and that he is not aware of such a correspondence being sent out. Gunraj said that the Commission has not even received any such information from the Coalition – let alone, to act on it, even though the Commission met as late as noon yesterday.

On Thursday, when Alexander, a Government-nominated Commissioner, approached the Media Centre outside of the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, and told the press of a decision made to write to the Immigration Department.
He said, “They [Coalition] have provided to us with names of persons who according to them, would have migrated and who would have been voted for.”

He continued, “Those have been sent to the Chief Immigration Officer for verification. The Chief Immigration Officer under Regulation 40 of the National Registration Act has an obligation to periodically provide information to the Chief Registration Officer. So I think it is in that context that the CRO requested information from the CIO.”
However, the National Registration Act only has 27 sections and it was not clear to the paper where the regulations Alexander referred to applied.

When asked at another point in the interview, about who sent out the correspondence, Alexander responded, “The Chairperson has initiated the process of accessing the immigration records.”
It is unclear whether the information being requested is only of persons who have migrated and had votes cast in their names, or whether it also includes persons who have not migrated but were out of the jurisdiction on Election Day. Commissioners and party representatives have referred to those interchangeably.

This is the first time that it was brought to the public’s attention that there had been any actual decision or move to verify the claims being made by the Coalition, as Singh had said before that, “he who asserts, must prove.”
The matter came up again yesterday when APNU+AFC representative, Aubrey Norton told reporters “We have also contended and provided information that many persons out of the jurisdiction voted. I want to point out to you that we have sent a first batch of 600 such information to GECOM.”

He then claimed that most of those claims have been confirmed: “… we are reliably informed that immigration has confirmed over 90 percent of them that were ticked, according to their records are out of the jurisdiction.”
GECOM has not confirmed this claim. Alexander yesterday came after Norton and reiterated his statement from Thursday that information submitted by the Coalition was forward to the Immigration Department.

He said, “With specific reference to the migrants, information has been submitted, that has been forwarded to the Chief Immigration Officer, and depending on the returns, we’ll be in a position to make a pronouncement. I think what the Chief Immigration Officer provides will be conclusive evidence on the matter. We can then provide… quantify what has occurred in that circumstance.”

At another point, he said “So they [Immigration] have, in fact, embarked on the process of discerning or determining whether the information is evidential.”
Alexander did not tell reporters of any decision by GECOM; if there were such, to investigate the Coalition’s claims, but he did go on to speak about investigating the claims as they are received.

“What I know is that one should not be waiting to investigate. As soon as those things are brought to our attention, an investigation should be embarked upon immediately. So I don’t see us waiting until we come to the conclusion of a district, or of the district, to say let’s go now and investigate,” he said.

All of these accounts appeared to align, until Gunraj came to the Media Centre. The Opposition-nominated Commissioner stated, “GECOM has taken no decision – the Commission has taken absolutely no decision, insofar as it relates to three things. With any of the issues that have arisen or may arise during this recount process, insofar as they are recorded either in individual observation reports or compiled observation reports. And I want to reject, as well…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.”

He said that he thought it important to note this, as GECOM is not clothed with the responsibility of investigation.
“The ambit or the legal authority with which GECOM is clothed, and the wherewithal which it possesses to execute its functions does not include investigation of any of these things,” Gunraj said.

He added that if GECOM were clothed with such a responsibility, that it might have already investigated and made findings on the actions of the Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo, “in relation to the fraudulent declarations that he attempted to perpetuate on this nation, thereby attempting to thwart the will of the electorate…”

The Returning Officer’s manipulation of figures which led to his declarations of March 13, 2020 has been verified and documented by this newspaper in a series of articles.
Gunraj was asked, specifically, whether he was aware of any information supplied by the Coalition being sent by GECOM to the Chief Immigration Officer. He responded, “As far as I’m aware, at a Commission level, no information was received from any political party who contested this, the elections on March 2, 2020. And the Commission has taken no decision to investigate or to send it anywhere because, like I said, we have not received any such document.”

Asked whether he was aware that any member of the Secretariat sent out such a letter, he said he is not. He added, however, that on the assumption that the Secretariat made such a move on its own, to send information to the Chief Immigration Officer, that those staffers “obviously are engaging in a frolic of their own, and will definitely face consequences, thereof.”

PPP Executive, Anil Nandlall pointed to the divergence of accounts given by the Commissioners, last night. He said, “These are two members of the Commission representing different political interests and you would have heard Mr. Alexander make the startling disclosure that the Secretariat has written or is about to write certain public authorities requesting certain information relative to allegations which APNU+AFC have been making.”

Nandlall said that the Secretariat is subordinate to the Commission, and so, if such a move was made, “that there is an unholy collaboration between Government Commissioners and certain elements of the Secretariat acting in consort to carry out the agenda of the APNU+AFC.”

He said that this is evidenced by what appears to be that the Secretariat is working on behalf of the Commission, even though some members of the Commission are unaware of what is happening.
“Even if it is that the Chairperson may have sent the letter or the CEO, it must be a decision of the Commission,” Nandlall told reporters.

Kaieteur News reached out to GECOM’s Public Relations Officer, Yolanda Ward, yesterday to determine whether she would be providing an in-person update at the media centre, as she has seldom done so in recent days. Ward said that she is attempting to arrange a Monday press conference. If that arrangement is not secured, she has committed to giving an in-person briefing today. Four subsequent calls to Ward, to seek clarity on the specific matter of the Commissioners’ conflicting accounts, went unanswered.

Reporters have repeatedly asked GECOM for a press conference with the full Commission or the Chair. The Chair, Justice Singh has not presented herself to the media at all, since the recount started.