‘Bizarre and Unfounded’ – AG rejects Vincent Alexander’s claims of fraudulent voting

– questions credibility of claims, points to lack of evidence since 2020 election

ATTORNEY GENERAL and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall, SC has disputed the latest allegations by National People’s Congress (PNC) executive Vincent Alexander that votes were cast on behalf of people who were not present on the polling day. March 2020 elections.

Speaking on his weekly television program Issues in the News on Tuesday, Nandlall said that four years after the elections, Alexander, the PNC’s representative to the Guyana Electoral Commission (GECOM), has yet to provide any evidence to substantiate the allegations.
Claims implying large-scale fraudulent voting were dismissed by Nandlall as “bizarre”, especially given the tight controls and surveillance in place on election day.
He explained that the Guyana Electoral Commission (GECOM) has mechanisms at polling stations that, in his opinion, make fraudulent voting almost impossible.

Nandlall explained that the process requires voters to present a photo ID card or passport, which is checked against a folio containing the voter’s picture and information.
Nandlall stated that this check was carried out in the presence of the chairman officer, vice chairman and polling officers from all political parties.
“Are you telling me that this imposter can show up and fool all these people sitting there?” he asked, contradicting Alexander’s claims.

In this context, Nandlall further questioned the validity of Alexander’s repeated claims, emphasizing the absence of any evidence.
“Alexander repeats this strange claim over and over in the newspapers without providing a single piece of evidence to support what he says. There is not a single piece of evidence presented by Alexander,” Nandlall said.
Nandlall reminded the public that the PNC accepted the voter list used in previous elections, noting that the list was considered legitimate in both the 2011 and 2015 elections; both successfully contested the PNC-led National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC).

“This was the exact list they used when they won a one-seat majority in the 2011 elections. It was clean then. “They won the 2015 elections with this list, it was clean then,” Nandlall said, suggesting that the PNC questioned the validity of the list only after the defeat in 2020.
To explain the robustness of Guyana’s electoral process, Nandlall noted the presence of numerous international and domestic observers during the 2020 elections, including CARICOM, the Commonwealth, the Organization of American States (OAS), and the Carter Center.
According to Nandlall, these observers, the diplomatic community and local observer bodies have not confirmed Alexander’s claims.

In response to Alexander’s “bloated list” allegations and calls for increased biometric security, Nandlall argued that Guyana’s current manual voting system is effective.
“The manual system works. Why would you want to use technology in a country like Guyana, where we could experience a power outage on election day, where things could go wrong?” he explained, expressing concerns about possible technical malfunctions.
Nandlall also suggested that Alexander’s narrative was consistent with the historical claims he made when drawing parallels with the PNC’s history of rigging elections in previous decades, especially when faced with electoral losses.

“Alexander is still haunted by the ghosts of the 1968 tricks and the 1985 tricks. They will lose the next elections. So they started coming up with excuses and reasons that they were going to lose anyway,” Nandlall said.
He also emphasized the importance of countering what he described as “baseless narratives” and reaffirmed the legitimacy of the 2020 election process.
“We must take the time to reject these narratives,” Nandlall said, calling for caution against false claims that threaten trust in the country’s democratic process.

Several prominent political figures from APNU+AFC and GECOM officials are currently before the court over allegations of manipulation and irregularities during the 2020 general elections.
Those charged are PNC activist Carol Smith-Joseph; Volda Lawrence, former Minister of Health in the APNU+AFC government; GECOM’s former Chief Election Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield; former Deputy CEO Roxanne Myers; former Fourth District (Demerara-Mahaica) Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo; and GECOM employees Sheffern Feb, Enrique Livan, Denise Babb-Cummings and Michelle Miller.

They are accused of a number of crimes, including misconduct in public office, filing false documents, and conspiracy to deceive Guyana voters by filing false voting returns.
The defendants allegedly inflated or facilitated results in the Fourth District, the country’s largest voting district, to give the APNU+AFC coalition a majority win in the March 2020 elections. (PPP/C) had won by more than 15,000 votes. All defendants were released on cash bail pending trial and determination of their cases.

In April 2023, the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the events of the 2020 General and Regional Election found collusion and collaboration among senior GECOM officials to divert votes towards APNU +AFC. electoral system.

Chairman Stanley John and members of the commission (former Chancellor, Carl Singh, and Senior Counsel, Godfrey Smith) prepared these findings based on evidence from many witnesses who testified, as well as reports from international observers.
The report found that Lowenfield made decisions and implemented procedures that were clearly contrary to the law and the will of the people. The findings also revealed that GECOM personnel ignored specific instructions from the court, used illegal and/or manipulated materials, and sided with APNU+AFC agents to berate observers when objections were raised.