The long-awaited President Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the election of March 2020, is scheduled to begin on Friday.
With approximately 20 witnesses already lined up to recount their observations of the election and the five months that followed until the results were declared in August, the government has promised to use the Commission to hold responsible those who attempted to change the outcome of the election.
However, the Commission has said that is not its mandate.
According to Chairman of the CoI, Justice of the Appeal (retired) of the Turks and Caicos Stanley John, the inquiry is to find out the facts of what occurred, why it occurred, who is responsible and what can be done to prevent a recurrence.
“We stress that in an inquiry of this nature there is no claimant and defendant, no prosecutor or accused, no pleadings, charges or indictments,” Justice John said.
He is supported in his duties by former Chancellor of the Judiciary (Guyana), Carl Singh and High Court Judge (Belize), and former Justice of Appeal (ag) in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, Godfrey P. Smith.
The proceedings which are open to the public, will be live-streamed.
Promising to conduct the inquiry with “utmost care and expeditiously”, hearings are expected to be completed by the end of January 2023 and a report submitted roughly by the end of March 2023.
The former APNU+AFC coalition government is accused of being in concert with former Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield and others to fraudulently change the outcome of the election in favor of the then David Granger-led government.
A recount confirmed that the PPP/C won the election and Ali was sworn in as president on August 2, 2020, five months after the election was held.
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