Elections CoI report to be presented in...

2020 General and Regional Elections on June 16, 2022. He had said, “We, and particularly your President, promised an international CoI, so I say to all those who struggled and sacrificed, all those who worked in protecting the democracy, that we have, in your honour, before dawn on next Tuesday, your President will name the members of that international CoI…those who subverted democracy, those who cannot present their SOPs, and those who struggled against the will of the people, the CoI will set the truth free from the untruth and the CoI will set those who dwell in the house of democracy and those who dwell in the fire of undemocratic rule and norms…in honour of the these martyrs too and in honour of all the Guyanese who fought for freedom and democracy, who fought relentlessly in those five months to ensure our country never ever was allowed to go down as an undemocratic nation, in honour of your sacrifices, I committed that we will have an international CoI into the last elections.”

Ali stressed that the Elections CoI is a promise made by the PPP/C Administration and his Administration is pleased to be able to deliver. “I promised a CoI. So that is why there is a lot of work going on now on how that Terms of Reference is developed,” he said.

In October 2020, Ali disclosed that the Government of Guyana was in talks with the international community regarding a Commission of

Inquiry into the events of the March 2020 Elections, which saw a five-month delay in the declaration of final election results. He had said, “We’ve already started conversation with various international stakeholders on the subject matter and the international community is also very much interested…the international community was a key part in ensuring that democracy was protected…so the international community is going to play a key part in this and they are very keen and they are very interested…in relation to a timeframe in having the CoI, I would say that it is in the, not the medium-term, but the immediate-term plan for the Government as we proceed towards the end of the year.”

The first mention of an investigation into the elections was made by Ali, during his inauguration speech on August 8, 2020. “All of us have an obligation to the nation and to ourselves to ensure that, never again, should any generation of our people be subjected to such unlawful behaviour. Therefore, a review of events related to the electoral process over the last five months will begin shortly to determine forensically exactly what transpired and to hold accountable any person who sought to pervert and corrupt the system.” The Head of State had said too that all necessary reforms will be pursued to make democracy stronger, and the electoral process more transparent.