Letter: Is it the political purpose of APNU/AFC to delay case before next elections?

Dear Editor,

It is almost five years since the March 2nd, 2020 General and Regional Elections were held, yet those persons alleged to have been involved in an attempt to rig the results of those elections have not yet been tried, with a decision having been given in court.

I was an accredited observer for the Private Sector Commission (PSC) during those elections, and witnessed in person, along with other observers, including the Heads of the diplomatic missions in Guyana, this attempt to rig.

I said at a PSC press conference at the time, having seen first-hand the attempt to rig the tabulation of Region Four, that, “In all my considerable life and career in and out of politics in this country, I have never seen such a barefaced, ugly, and deliberate attempt to rig an election.” My words were published in the local media on 20th June, 2020.

As a result of that statement and a series of letters published in the press, and broadcast commentaries addressing this attempt to manipulate the ballot count of Region Four by the APNU/AFC government, then in power, I was sued on 3rd June, 2021 by former President David Arthur Granger for libel, claiming damages in excess of $50M.

This case has been languishing in the courts for now some three years, while Mr Granger’s lawyer, Mr. Roysdale Forde, fights for the judge he wants to hear the case. This is popularly described in the legal fraternity as “Judge shopping”.

In April last year, a Commission of Inquiry into the matter of the rigging concluded that Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield, his deputy Roxanne Myers, and Returning Officer for Region 4, Clairmont Mingo, all of whom had refused to appear before the Commission, were guilty of “a conscious and deliberate, even brazen, effort to violate the provisions of Section 84(1) of the Representation of the People Act”.

The Commission went on to find that these three persons had “abandoned all need for neutrality and impartiality, and demonstrated a bias for a competing political party, and in the course of events over those days, showed an open connection with that party, and by their efforts, sought a desired result for that party”. That party was, of course, the APNU/AFC, of which David Granger was the leader and the president of the government of that party in office.

But the Commission of Inquiry had no power to prosecute those persons found guilty of wrongdoing. All of them, however, along with other persons involved, have since been charged with Election Fraud. But this case has been indeterminably delayed, first by the determined interventions of the defence lawyers, then by Senior Magistrate Leron Daly becoming ill, and is now resumed under Acting Chief Magistrate Faith McGusty.

I am one of the witnesses scheduled to give evidence in this case. Almost immediately on the resumption, at the case management conference last Wednesday (November 6), the leading defence lawyer, Mr. Nigel Hughes, found legal reasons for further delaying the case, advocating that the trial must begin all over again.

It seems to me that it is the clear intention of Mr. Hughes and his team, no doubt, acting on the directions of their clients who are before the court — all of whom were appointed by the APNU/AFC government then led by former President Granger — to delay, delay, delay.So, I ask this question with some considerable concern: Is it perhaps the political purpose of the APNU/AFC party, now in opposition, to have this case delayed and unconcluded before the next elections?

After all, even if the trial proceeds without further questionable intervention, it is quite possible, with the defence lawyers employing every legal strategy at their disposal to drag it out, and then, whatever the decision, the matter is appealed all the way to the CCJ, that there will be no decision before the elections. And then, should the Opposition party win the elections, the case is dropped and the guilty go free.

Yours sincerely,Kit Nascimento