Those who stymied electoral process to be dealt with-  President Ali announces

Guyana Elections Commission Headquarters 

Anyone who played a part and/or contributed to the process which led to Guyana being unable to have its elections results within a reasonable time after the close of poll would be held accountable.

Today at his official inauguration, President Irfaan Ali told the gathering very shortly a review of that process would commence.

“Therefore a review of the events relating to the electoral process over the last five months will begin shortly in order to determine, forensically, exactly what transpired and to hold accountable, any person who sought to pervert and corrupt the system,” President Ali said in his address.

It was in his speech that he made reference to the point that all persons are painfully aware of the trauma and anguish that the Guyanese people had to “endure over the last five months as various attempts were made to destroy our democratic credentials and deny the will of the electorate”.

“All of us have an obligation to the nation and to ourselves that never again should any generation of our people be subjected to such unlawful behaviour,” President Ali asserted.

The Head of State used the platform to reassure the public that the necessary systems would be advanced to ensure reforms to make Guyana’s democracy stronger and its electoral process more transparent.

Guyanese cast their votes on March 02, 2020, in the country’s regional and national elections, but never knew the winner, in the form of a valid, official declaration, until Auguat 02, 2020… exactly five months after.

The road to the declaration was not an easy one for any of the parties who contested the elections, let alone the citizens who participated in the electoral process.

By the night after the elections, the Peoples Progressive Party Civic had indicated by way of its actions that it won the elections, while the incumbent at the time, APNU+AFC, remained silent until a few days later.

The latter then came out to allege Russian involvement in the process. That was soon followed by unverified numbers being declared at GECOM’s Region 4 Returning Office by its Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo.

An injunction was filed on him, stopping the process, and that was the beginning of a number of matters being filed in the courts, mostly by affiliates of the APNU+AFC.

A total recount of the votes was then done, after being agreed to by the then president and leader of the opposition, but when the results showed that the PPP had won, court cases were filed challenging the legality of the recount.

In the end, the courts ruled that the figures from the national vote recount must be used to declare the winner of the elections.

Notwithstanding, Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield refused to tabulate the figures that showed a win for the PPP. Lowenfield did not acknowledge this clearly established fact until last week when he submitted his final report which led to the official declaration and swearing-in of Irfaan Ali.