The Week-in-Review - June 28 to July 4

Elections

CCJ judges press counsel on jurisdiction, decision set for Wednesday- After listening to more than six hours of submissions, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) last week set Wednesday at 3pm to rule on whether it has jurisdiction to hear the appeal taken before it by PPP General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo and PPP/C presidential candidate Irfaan Ali, challenging the decision of the local Court of Appeal to pronounce on the constitutional meaning of “votes cast” at the March 2 polls. This is expected to clear the way for the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to move ahead to make a declaration in order for a new president to be sworn in. At the end of the proceedings, President of the CCJ Justice Adrian Saunders said that the court appreciates need for expeditiousness. The first issue to be determined is whether the CCJ has jurisdiction to hear the matter as Article 177 (4) of the Guyana Constitution states that the Court of Appeal in Guyana is the final court as it relates to the provisions under this Article. This became a controversial issue after Jagdeo and Ali challenged the decision of the local Court of Appeal to pronounce on the constitutional meaning of “votes cast” at the March 2 polls. Justice Saunders was joined on the virtual bench by Justices Jacob Wit, Maureen Rajnauth-Lee, Denys Barrow and Peter Jamadar.

Granger says will await GECOM declaration - In the face of mounting pressure to accept the results of the recount which show that he lost the March 2nd general elections, President David Granger last week said that he will not prematurely accept either defeat or a win and will await the official declaration of GECOM. “I cannot claim victory, which I have not done and I cannot concede to defeat; which I have not done, unless I am notified formally by the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission what the results of the elections …have been,” Granger told reporters, on the sidelines of the promotion and instrumenting of now acting Chief of Staff Godfrey Bess. “I don’t know what the Elections Commission will declare. Like all Guyanese, we have been subject to a number of reports but the only authentic report comes from the chair of the Elections Commission to me, and that has not happened. In that regard, I ask all the commentators to wait until the Chair of Guyana Elections Commission, who when she is ready, will make a declaration, and as I have said before, I will abide by that declaration,” he added. While Granger has frequently said that he will accept “any” declaration by the GECOM chair, public skepticism of his intent has been fuelled by his sidestepping of a definitive report by CARICOM observers on the recount results which show a win for the PPP/C and his adoption of the report of the Chief Election Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield which has obliterated over 115,000 votes.

Granger endorses Lowenfield chopping of 115,000 votes - President David Granger last week endorsed a controversial report by Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield which invalidated the votes of 25% of Guyanese electors. During an interview on Benschop Radio, his third in recent weeks while ignoring other media, Granger said that the incumbent APNU+AFC continues to insist that the elections be decided not just on quantity of votes cast but on the quality of those votes. “What we have found is that there is need for a deeper investigation into the anomalies and the irregularities that occurred countrywide. This has been done and has been a feature of the report the CEO presented to the Commission,” he maintained, adding that “It is quite in order for the Chief Election Officer to rule that invalid votes cannot be counted as valid.” “It is unacceptable for the CEO to present a report that doesn’t take into account the fact that these irregularities have occurred and have affected the validity of the votes…this is the reason why the Court of Appeal ruled votes must mean valid votes, if votes are fraudulent or if votes exceeds the number of persons on a list they cannot be valid votes,” the caretaker president declared. His statements are a repetition of claims made by his party during the National Recount none of which has been proven. Lowenfield last month submitted a report to GECOM which discards over 115,000 votes that were cast at the March 2nd polls and purports to award victory to the incumbent APNU+AFC. He later defended his decision, saying that he has acted lawfully.

In 2015 Lowenfield said impersonation `just not possible’ - On June 13, Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield told the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) that “instances of voter impersonation” have affected the standard of the March 2 polls and later used this and other alleged anomalies to invalidate approximately 25% of the ballots cast. However, an unearthed interview from 2015 shows Lowenfield contending that impersonation “is just not possible”. “We need to put to rest the concept that a man can leave polling station A in Cummingsburg and go across to Alberttown, Queenstown and hop around. It’s just not possible,” Lowenfield says in a three- minute video published by online media outlet News Room. In the video, the CEO, in the company of the then Chair of the GECOM Steve Surujbally, explained that anyone trying to vote on polling day can only do so at the polling station where they are registered. “For you to vote at a polling station you have to be listed to vote there. In that polling station our Presiding Officer will have a list specific to that polling station. If you go to another polling station then your name will not be there,” he animatedly explained. Speaking on “rumours” of impersonation Lowenfield emphatically explained why it just is not possible. “Even if your Vaseline has worked and you remove the ink. When you go there say in another name like Troy Johnson. Without an Identification Card then the folio comes into play…you have to pass through the process of having the features of Troy and our Presiding Officer will be asking you [questions] since you don’t have an ID card,” he further explained adding that question include things such as “What’s your mother’s date of birth?”

CARICOM support not interference, Secretary General says - Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretary General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque yesterday stressed that each action taken by the Community to help resolve Guyana’s elections crisis was “by invitation” and has voiced confidence in the work of observers of the national recount exercise. Speaking during a virtual conference for the handing over of CARICOM’s chairmanship from Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley to St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, LaRocque described the Community as a family that supports its members during times of danger, such as blacklisting or when there are threats to territorial integrity. “That is not interference. That is the CARICOM family being there for each other. It is that family spirit that will get us through this exceptional time,” he said. “I want to thank the independent CARICOM observer team for their personal sacrifice. The team was in Guyana, by invitation, and spent 46 days during the pandemic. I have every confidence in the work they have produced,” LaRocque further said.

Health

Gov’t locks down Moruca, Aranka as COVID-19 cases surge - Following spikes in COVID-19 infections, the government on Friday announced that no one will be allowed into or out of Moruca in Region One and the mining area of Aranka/Arangoy Landing in Region Seven without the permission of the Minister of Public Health. The announcement came as the government proceeded with the second phase of its six-phase plan to rollback measures that were implemented to curb the spread of the virus that has so far taken the lives of 14 persons here. In its latest update, the Ministry of Public Health Public said that there are 78 cases of the virus in Region One – a rapid escalation - and 36 in Region Seven. The updated COVID-19 emergency measures, which have been gazetted, include special measures for Moruca and Aranka/Arangoy Landing, where persons are not permitted to leave until July 16th, 2020. Mask wearing is now mandatory while in public in the two areas. Under the special measures, the Joint Services have been tasked with coordinating, mobilising and securing quarantine and isolation facilities, materials and goods and services at those sites, and manning screening and test checkpoints as well as providing escort for mobile teams. Specific demarcated coordinates were given for the Aranka/Arangoy Landing and Moruca areas and the gazetted measures specifically stipulate that “No person shall travel into or out of the areas listed in the Schedule during the period 3rd July 2020 to the 16th July, 2020 without the authorisation of the Minister of Public Health”. There have been a number of cases of COVID19 at Aranka and there have been calls to the government to remove mining as an essential service over concerns that miners could potentially transmit the virus in areas which are close to indigenous communities.

Coronavirus spreads to ninth region as numbers continue to rise - Guyana on Friday recorded six new cases of COVID-19, including the first in Region Eight, which means that the virus has now reached nine of the country’s ten Administrative regions. This was announced during the Ministry of Public Health’s COVID-19 daily update, where it was stated one of the six new cases was recorded in Region Eight (PotaroSiparuni) and is said to be an imported case from Moruca, in Region One.

Region Eight previously stood with Region Five as one of the two regions that had not recorded any case of COVID-19. According to a report from the Department of Public Information (DPI), the positive case is an 18-yearold patient who travelled from Moruca to visit relatives in the outskirts of Mahdia and had been in the region for about 18 days prior to being identified. The report noted that since the man tested positive, three persons who were in contact with him were quarantined even as a contact tracing exercise is ongoing to find and quarantine other persons that he might have been in contact with.

Two more COVID-19 patients die - A Bartica miner is one of the two COVID-19 fatalities that occurred last week. Kevin Ridley, 42, of Albouystown was recorded as the thirteenth coronavirus fatality in the country after he passed away on Monday at the Georgetown Public Hospital. He was announced as a COVID-19 fatality two days after. According to information received, he was taken to Accident and Emergency Unit on Monday and was then referred to the COVID-19 Unit. It was further revealed that subsequent to that he was swabbed and died shortly after. The fourteenth COVID-19 fatality was yesterday afternoon confirmed and was then identified as 34year-old Abdool Khan, of Bartica, who was a father of three and a businessman. His death marks the first fatality for Region Seven.

In the courts

Court orders summons for Lowenfield over private charges - Georgetown Magistrate Faith McGusty on Friday ordered that Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield be summoned to appear before a city court after three private charges were filed against him over alleged chicanery in the tabulation of results from the March 2 polls. In separate charges, Daniel Josh Kanhai, of The New Movement (TNM), and Desmond Morian, of the opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), have accused Lowenfield of conspiracy to commit fraud to alter the results of the elections and misconduct in public office. Their lawyers, attorneys-at-law Glenn Hanoman, Mark Conway and George Thomas, who are expected to be serving as special prosecutors, indicated that they were unsuccessful in effecting service of the summons for Lowenfield to attend court yesterday.

Following the submission of the third charge yesterday, Hanoman told reporters that attempts made have Lowenfield served had been unsuccessful due to his security detail at his office and home being “unhelpful”. “It would appear as though some of the security personnel who are guarding premises that he is connected to, his office and his home, they are unhelpful to him getting served. So we are going to try again, using the police, to serve Mr. Lowenfield,” Hanoman explained. Once

summoned, Lowenfield is expected to appear before the court on July 24th.

Massacres convict sentenced for Triumph killings, armed robbery - Michael Caesar, also known as ‘’Capone,’ 36, who is currently serving sentences for his role in the Lusignan and Bartica massacres, was last Thursday sentenced to 13 years in jail after pleading guilty to two counts of manslaughter and armed robbery. Caesar, who was charged with two counts of murder, entered a guilty plea to two counts of manslaughter instead. Appearing before Justice Simone MorrisRamlall at the High Court via Zoom, he admitted to the killing of Fazal Hakim, called ‘Boyee,’ 25, of Mon Repos and Rajesh Singh, called ‘Rabbit,’ 35,of of

Martyr’s Ville on December 16th, 2007 at Lot 82 Agriculture Road, Triumph. He also admitted to two counts of armed robbery where it was alleged that at the same time and at the same location, while in the company of others and armed with weapons, he robbed Narendra Mukhram and his wife of a quantity of cash and jewellery. Caesar was represented by attorney-at-law Maxwell McKay, who asked that his client’s sentence reflect the fact that he has been incarcerated since 2009, that he voluntarily gave his statement and that he did not waste the court’s time. State attorney Tuanna Hardy, however, argued that the killings were deliberate acts, which left the families of the victims traumatized and, therefore, the state was asking that the sentence reflect the nature and gravity of the acts.