These are interesting times. There are so many strange things happening that one wonders why these things never happened before.
Take the case of Keith Lowenfield, Clairmont Mingo, Roxanne Myers, Carol Joseph, Volda Lawrence and some others.
These have all been charged by the police with electoral offences. One charge is forgery, another is misdemeanor in public office.
The impression is that the police, as the guardians of law and order, decided to mount an investigation into the perceived crimes perpetrated after the March 2, 2020 elections. But before the police could have got involved there were private criminal charges.
Were the people filing the private criminal charges ahead of the police with their investigations? And if they were why have they not as yet presented the evidence on which these charges are premised?
This is worrying because if the private charges and the police charges are related or intertwined it would suggest that all someone has to do is make an allegation and without any investigation of the allegation the police can lay charges.
The Director of Public Prosecutions decided to become involved and to take over the handling of the private criminal charges after there was some pressure for the prosecution to produce the evidence.
Before she did that, she nolle prosequi the private criminal charges brought against Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission, Justice Claudette Singh.
No one knows the reason for nullifying the charges against Justice Singh, but when that happened one thought that the same thing would have happened to the other private criminal charges.
The police got involved, on whose instructions, one does not know. Did the Director of Public Prosecutions invite the police to conduct the investigations on behalf of the people who filed the private criminal charges? One does not know.
One does know that when fraud is committed in a government department there is a complaint to the police. This then sparks an investigation by the police.
In this case where charges of fraud have been laid one is at a loss to ascertain who invited the police. The police are not known to immerse themselves in such matters without an invitation.
But with the police being involved in the investigations into the elections, there are other areas of irregularities that one thought would have attracted the attention of the police.
There were ballot boxes without poll documents, there were charges of voter impersonation and more. There has been no investigation in this direction and certainly no charge.
Last week, Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon, at his weekly press conference made a damning allegation against the police. He accused them of being under the direction of the People’s Progressive Party.
When that party came to government it reassigned a number of police officers. Some were sent home on leave. It replaced the Crime Chief and reinstated an officer who had previously served as Crime Chief. This officer is spearheading the investigations into the perceived electoral irregularities.
Mr. Harmon concluded that the police are only targeting people of African ancestry employed in the Guyana Elections Commission and the few from Region Four who were involved in the elections. And so it seems indeed.
There were Region Four and Region Six presiding officers who ran afoul of the electoral laws. The police have not displayed any interest in these people. That is what is causing the perception that the entire episode at this time is political.
Then there was Elections Commissioner, Vincent Alexander, who, during a demonstration outside the Beterverwagting Police Station, over the detention of Deputy Chief Elections Officer Roxanne Myers, said that in the run up to the elections there were efforts to dismantle the Guyana Elections Commission.
Not many were aware of this development so Alexander provided examples. He spoke of the efforts of Robeson Benn to dismantle the Commission. He then said that the detentions and charges clearly bear out this motive to rid the Guyana Elections Commission of certain people.
And there is Chairman of the People’s National Congress, Volda Lawrence. She has already been charged, privately, with matters pertaining to the March 2 elections.
The police are therefore acting outside of what happened in the case of the private charges before and on what Keith Lowenfield charges seem to testify to.
Volda Lawrence is out on bail and reporting whenever she has to. What therefore makes her detention so urgent? It was good to see her released yesterday and not detained like Roxanne Myers.
Many moons ago Nat King Cole sang a song, “Who’s next in line?” There are now people aligned to the People’s National Congress humming that tune.
The police seem to have the answer.
