First Published: 31st March, 2020
Last updated: March 31, 2020 at 22:09 pm
Presidential Candidate of the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP), Mr. Lenox Schuman, has today, 31st of March, 2020, in Georgetown, Guyana, South America, made a statement that it is clear that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic has won the March 2, 2020 elections.
His statement joins a number of prominent voices which are not aligned with the PPP/C but which have conceded that the PPP/C has won the March 2, 2020. In fact, both Nigel Hinds and Lenox Schuman, who have run against the PPP/C in the March 2nd, 2020 elections, have conceded that the PPP/C has, by all indications, won the elections.
Read Story: PPP/C Gained Majority Votes in March 2 Elections – Nigel Hinds.
Today, the Full Court ruled that the injunction filed by private citizen Ulita Moore to stop the recount of Region 4 votes is unconstitutional and void. As such, GECOM is now given full reigns to go ahead with the long anticipated recount of the disputed Region 4 votes.
Read Story: Chief Justice Rules in Favor of Recount of Region 4 Votes
Statement by Mr. Lenox Schuman…
Good morning folks. Just a quick update. I’m just returning from the High Court where they had the Full Court hearing. What has happened this morning is that the High Court threw out Justice Holder’s decision on Ulita Moore’s case, ruling that the court has no jurisdiction to interfere nor rule on the matter that was before GECOM. If you remember correctly, is that the President and leader of the opposition had filed an aide memoire with CARICOM and the Guyana Elections Commission. An injunction was filed by Ms. Ulita Moore asking for judicial review, whether or not that could be undertaken.
Justice Holder had ruled that the court does have jurisdiction to hear the matter. An appeal was subsequently made to the Full Court. The Full Court today ruled that the court has no jurisdiction in the matter…that any matter that comes after the declaration has been made after the results have been accepted…it could be done via elections petition. So right now everything gets thrown right back to the Guyana Elections Commission to now hopefully hold Madam Chair and the Elections Commission to count those votes and ensure that we have not only a transparent final result, but also that each political party would know exactly how they performed.
I think there is one thing that has been clear through this entire process. It is that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic has won these elections. They have done that decisively. We have all been aware of that. The country has been aware of that, the international community has been aware of that. But really…it’s still in the air…by what margin? We’re hopeful that the court, after this ruling now, and we go back to the ballot boxes, that they literally count all the ballots and see exactly how they performed.
I would have to agree to a great extent with the position of the PPP in being prepared to govern. I don’t see that there is another formula at this point. We still have a lot of discussions that needs to go around this country. Not only what went wrong, but how do we ensure that we protect this fledging democracy from going down that path again.
It is now for us to see what Mr. Granger does. Initially he had communicated that he is committed to a full recount and that he is only interested in a transparent and legitimate results.
The international community has also called for that. Many many stakeholders…all the fledging political parties have called for that. And now that opportunity exists. It lies squarely in the lap of the Guyana Elections Commission to see exactly what they are going to do now. And once again, if you remember correctly, part of Justice Claudette Singh’s submission to the court…part of her affidavit was that she is committed to a recount. Now let’s go back to the Guyana Elections Commission and ask them to make good on that commitment to go through a recount and ensure that our votes are counted.
One of the things that we are very very wary of is the fact that the COVID-19 virus is here. And hopefully we could take every possible precautionary measure to ensure that when that recount is executed, that it is executed with the utmost of safety…that we are not denied access to these things based on some…what I’d say…farcical plan of anyone…. If you remember correctly, when we were going to undertake the recount at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre, they had called in the pest control to fumigate that place for COVID-19 I think it was, but that was just a delay tactic to permit them a further delay to get to this point.
We are hopeful that good sense will prevail. You cannot hold back the hands of inevitability or destiny in this point for eternity. At some point it is going to overtake you and it is going to come down upon you. And that is where we’re at at this point. Let’s ensure that we get his recount done. Let’s ensure that we take care of our people. And ensure that we look out for the COVID 19 and what we can do to minimize…I can’t say that we can eliminate at this point…but minimize the spread of it, and do everything that we possibly can.
We’re hopeful that you the public, if you intend on coming out and joining us in watching these ballot boxes that you maintain good social distancing, that you take every precaution. Wear a mask if you have one. That’s very very serious. Bring your own sanitizer.
Once again, take every precaution that you can. The last thing we would like for them to do is to use that as an excuse to deny our people, and when I say our people, the fledging parties, an opportunity to continuously watch over those containers. We look forward to that, and we’ll keep you updated as the day progresses.
This afternoon there’s a hearing by Justice Holder on another matter. We’re yet to see how that goes and we’re hopeful that good sense prevails. Thank you and we will keep you updated.