Action is being taken to dismiss GECOM officials who tried to rig elections – Commissioner Gunraj
By Kemol King
Kaieteur News – Government-nominated Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Commissioner Sase Gunraj said on Saturday that steps will be taken to dismiss officials who participated in the implementation of the plot to rig the 2020 general and regional elections.
GECOM Commissioner, Sase Gunraj
His comments were made during a special program broadcast by the National Communications Network (NCN) entitled ‘Attack on Democracy’, and hosted by Director of Public Information (DPI) Eddie Layne. As Commissioner, Gunraj was an integral figure in last year’s campaign against the threat to Guyana’s democracy. Despite the recount confirming the fraudulent nature of the statements made by District Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, he and other officials accused of being involved in the attack on Guyana democracy are still employed by GECOM today.
At this date last year, the GECOM Secretariat had already sought, through several election officials, to get the Chairman, Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh SC to declare a national result that included fraudulent numbers from a Region Four account. Some of these officials also participated in the national recount process necessary to correct Mingo’s fraudulent statements.
This seriously wounded public trust in the constitutional body mandated to provide free and fair elections. Other GECOM officials accused of participating in the conspiracy to steal the elections are Chief Returning Officer Keith Lowenfield and Deputy Chief Returning Officer Roxanne Myers.
Notably, Lowenfield had proposed that the Commission move on several occasions to declare fraudulent numbers. He also tried, clearly disregarding the orders of the GECOM Chairman, to cast hundreds upon thousands of valid votes in moves that would have given a Partnership victory over National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU + AFC). As for Myers, she faced accusations from several small party officials, notably A New Guyana United (ANUG) Chairman Timothy Jonas that her involvement in the recounting process put him at risk.
Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira
Gunraj’s view is that this status quo should not be allowed to continue.
“The ultimate question on the minds of the public out there who have commented on that, they ask, is why Lowenfield and Myers and Mingo, especially still at GECOM’s employer,” Gunraj said on Saturday night.
“But I want to tell the nation now that short, short steps are going to be taken to remove them from GECOM. And I say no apologies because their actions were clearly designed to steal the election, obstruct the will of the electorate, and that must have consequences, because their presence there undermines confidence in the system. If the process is being abused by those responsible for carrying out the process, the guardians of the process, then something is clearly not right, and that must be fixed. It’s plain and simple. ”
Gail Teixeira, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, also took part in the special program and said, “Unless the culprits, or those who seek openly and relentlessly, are removed barefoot to take away the rights of the people, we will lack trust and confidence at the level we want for local government elections and for next general elections in five years’ time. And these are vital steps that we have at this time to ensure that people have confidence. This is actually a constitutional body that was the tool used, not the soldiers stealing ballot boxes in the past. This is where the constitutional body itself, GECOM, was the tool to steal the elections, and that must never happen again. ”
Teixeira noted, that she is confident that Guyana now has a golden opportunity to build on this experience, and that Guyana must teach its young people to continue to defend their democratic rights for the nation’s development.