Claudette Lansbury Singh: “Murder She Wrote”

Oct 12, 2020 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

The drama of the wild, comical yet brutal attempts to rig the March 2020 election has taken an interesting turn with the arrest of Deputy Chief Elections Officer, Roxanne Myers. Ms. Myers, it is alleged, holds the key to one of the great mysteries of post-colonial Guyana.
What happened the evening of March 5 at the Command Centre of GECOM inside the Ashmin’s Building remains a curious, tantalizing mystery that only three persons know – GECOM chair, Claudette Singh; the recently retired police commissioner, Leslie James, and Myers.
The story goes like this. Clairmont Mingo, the Returning Officer for Region Four made a declaration using statements of poll (SOPs) that conflicted with SOPs that the opposition parties and international observers had.
As the decibels took over the Command Centre as a reaction to the insanity of Mingo’s pantomime, opposition politicians and international observers sought audience with Ms. Singh only to discover that she was in a locked office and despite those asking to meet with her, she failed to emerge.
The rising decibels turned to pandemonium because hours passed and no one could secure access to Singh with rumours flying around that Myers was with her. Two reactions emerged from outside the shuttered room in which Singh was camping out.
The action inside the building was being beamed to the outside world by people’s smart phones. First, there was the reaction of Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, who was filmed saying that Singh was under siege.
Secondly, opposition politician, Lenox Shuman, speaking to the world through his smart phone, said he heard people shouting that murder had taken place.
Others through their smart phones were broadcasting to the world that there was mounting fear that Singh may be in physical harm inside the room. Now here is the part that is interesting. With Myers likely to go through a trial the enigma may be dissolved.
There was no murder. There was no harm to Singh. Singh in fact used her phone to call the publisher of this newspaper, Glenn Lall, and its then editor, Adam Harris. She requested them to visit her right in the cocoon where she was. When Lall and Harris got there, on making contact with Singh by phone, she agreed to see them but the police refused entry to Lall and Harris.
How could the police deny entry to two guests that Singh wanted to see? And why did she not insist that the police give permission to Lall and Harris? Obviously Singh was not open with Lall and Harris or the police exceeded their legal authority.
This brings into question Edgar Thomas, Assistant Commissioner of Police, who was in charge of total police operation that night at the command centre.
There were only two persons above Thomas that could have overruled his jurisdiction at the GECOM Command Centre that night when Shuman broadcast there could have been a murder.
They were Maxine Graham, Deputy Commissioner, and the Commissioner himself, Leslie James, (both are since retired). Thomas was humiliated in front of his junior ranks as was seen by all the persons who were looking at that locked door where Angela Lansbury (star of the TV show, “Murder She Wrote) was hold up.
The police ordered that no one was to enter the Ashmin Building and no one was permitted to approach the room where Madam Chairperson was in. But those edicts did not come from Thomas and when dozens of persons converged on Thomas, he could be heard asking the ranks who gave them those orders.
So, at the trial of Myers, will we know if it was Graham or James that instructed the ranks inside the building? Will Myers be asked questions by the prosecutor what exactly was Angela Lansbury doing in that room for four hours? Why she wanted to be in that place for hours?
These are tantalizing questions for Myers because it is alleged Myers was inside the space with her. Of course, it is unacceptable that we have to wait until Myers takes the stand to know what happened to Lansbury when she herself can tell us.
There are two speculative areas. She did not want to be served a writ that Anil Nandlall had obtained to stop Mingo from his crude tampering with the tabulations. Secondly, she simply did not want to answer any questions whatsoever and she thought it best to hide away.
Looking back at that drama and the lady who was imprisoned or the lady who chose to lock herself away, it was a funny episode that reminded us of Angela Lansbury and her TV drama; “Murder She Wrote.”