SOURCES: CMC, GUYANA CHRON­I­CLE

The pres­i­den­tial can­di­date for the main op­po­si­tion Peo­ple's Pro­gres­sive Par­ty/Civic (PPP/C), Dr Mo­hamed Ir­faan Ali, was on Sun­day de­clared pres­i­dent elect of Guyana.

In ad­di­tion, fol­low­ing the de­c­la­ra­tion by Chair­per­son of the Guyana Elec­tions Com­mis­sion (GECOM), Re­tired Jus­tice Claudette Singh, Dr Ali was sworn in as the new Pres­i­dent of Guyana. 

Ini­tial re­ports are that the fol­low­ing posts have been con­firmed and sworn:

■  Prime Min­is­ter - Mark Phillips

■  Vice Pres­i­dent - Bhar­rat Jagdeo

■  At­tor­ney Gen­er­al - Anil Nand­lall

■  Min­is­ter of Par­lia­men­tary Af­fairs - Gail Teix­eira

A full Cab­i­net is ex­pect­ed to be sworn in be­fore the end of the week, in ad­di­tion to the of­fi­cial in­au­gu­ra­tion of the new gov­ern­ment.

40-year-old Ir­faan Ali is a for­mer Min­is­ter of Hous­ing un­der the pre­vi­ous PPP/C ad­min­is­tra­tion. He was elect­ed pres­i­den­tial can­di­date of the PPP/C in Jan­u­ary 2019.

Ear­li­er on Sun­day, Re­tired Jus­tice Claudette Singh de­clared the elec­tion in favour of the PPP/C af­ter she re­ceived the re­port from GECOM CEO, Kei­th Lowen­field.

The re­port of the CEO was based on the da­ta from the Na­tion­al Re­count. The Peo­ples Pro­gres­sive Par­ty/Civic(PPP/C) ob­tained 33 seats while A Part­ner­ship for Na­tion­al Uni­ty +Al­liance For Change (AP­NU+AFC) coali­tion ob­tained 31 seats. The small par­ties al­so picked-up a seat.

Lowen­field in his re­port stat­ed that he does not be­lieve that the de­c­la­ra­tion re­flects the will of the peo­ple. This, he said, was based on the num­ber anom­alies which came out in the re­count process.

In the de­c­la­ra­tion of the elec­tion, the GECOM Chair­man stat­ed that  ar­ti­cle 177 (2) of the Con­sti­tu­tion (states) that where there are two or more pres­i­den­tial can­di­dates, if more votes are cast in favour of the list in which a per­son is des­ig­nat­ed as pres­i­den­tial can­di­date than in favour of any oth­er list, that pres­i­den­tial can­di­date shall be deemed to be elect­ed pres­i­dent  and shall so be de­clared by the Chair­man of the Elec­tion Com­mis­sion, act­ing on­ly in ac­cor­dance with the ad­vice of the Chief Elec­tion Of­fi­cer, af­ter the ad­vice has been ten­dered to the Elec­tions Com­mis­sion at a du­ly sum­moned meet­ing.

“Where­as the list of can­di­dates of the PPP/C for elec­tion of mem­bers to the Na­tion­al As­sem­bly held on March 2, 2020, pur­suant to ar­ti­cle 60 (2) of the Con­sti­tu­tion, des­ig­nat­ed Mo­hamed Ir­faan Ali, as the pres­i­den­tial can­di­date for the said elec­tion – and where­as more votes were cast in fa­vor of the list of the PPP/C than in fa­vor of the list of any oth­er par­ty con­test­ing the elec­tion of mem­bers of the Na­tion­al As­sem­bly held pur­suant to ar­ti­cle 60(2) of the Con­sti­tu­tion; now there­fore, in ac­cor­dance with the pro­vi­sions of ar­ti­cle 177(2), I do here­by de­clare that Mo­hamed Ir­faan Ali, the pres­i­den­tial can­di­date des­ig­nat­ed in the list of the PPP/C, has been elect­ed pres­i­dent of the Co­op­er­a­tive Re­pub­lic of Guyana.”