Dear Editor,
Our man, the President, is surely a devout and truthful man: he falls on his knees, bows his head, and clasps his hands at every opportune moment. He frequently proclaims his love for abiding by the Constitution and the law. Yet, despite this, some critics try to diminish his reassurances to all and sundry by pointing out that a lion doesn’t have to tell you it’s a lion; it’s self-evident! 
Now Caribbean diplomatic circles have taken to calling His Excellency a Sanctimonious Gangster. Bearing in mind the limits of time and space to look at the copious disabusing evidence, let’s look at a few snippets of chronology arising out of the Non-Confidence Motion and the March 2nd General Election, His Excellency’s statements, his and his subordinates’ actions, and other interlocutor contributions.
As seen from the short chronology, the very next day after the NCM, on December 22nd 2018, President Granger did the honourable thing. He pledged early elections, which I interpreted to mean early March. And elections were held in early March – March 2020 that is. The little detail of the year might have slipped him.
Also, even with all the hindsight we have now, who can say that there was any hanky-panky with GECOM. He did write a letter on February 16th to then GECOM Chairman James Patterson, in which he promised as much funds and “sufficient time” for GECOM to hold “credible elections”.
In his defence, about a week later, he corrected both the fallacy that he had the authority to call an election and the notion that he gave GECOM the green light to take as long as they wanted.
The occasion was the March 6th meeting with Jagdeo to negotiate setting an election date. The President let it be known at that important meeting, “I cannot decide when elections will be held.” His elucidation enlightened us that GECOM was not only charged with being ready to hold elections at any time, but they could also call an election whenever they wanted. As he so often reminds us, GECOM is an independent constitutional body.
Moving on from the NCM to the Election, there is some confusion on what election results the President will accept. Let’s clarify that. What follows is much abbreviated.
On March 6th, Harmon said our President was ready to be sworn in on Mingo’s numbers. I must hasten to add the President hadn’t then, and still hasn’t now, seen the SOPs in the possession of his party.
After the Mingo route was stymied by the courts, and following many delays that Mr. Granger had no part in occasioning, he said during a May 17th Presidential Visit to the Recount Centre that he would accept “any” declaration by GECOM. We could not ask for a more definitive statement.
It was a slight shift when he subsequently signalled, on May 26th, that he was rethinking the “any” GECOM thing, and maybe the whole GECOM thing, after the SORs kept matching the SOPs even in the wake of his visit to the Recount Centre. He therefore let us know that, in the final analysis, CARICOM! CARICOM! Will make a statement. That was very emphatic.
But he hadn’t completely given up on GECOM. He gave us a new window on GECOM on June 12th when he alluded that the GECOM Chair would scrap the election and that he might have to call a State of Emergency.
At the same time, he himself came on board with the claim that the very election that he had lauded as free and fair was actually quite fraudulent. Notwithstanding, he had been prepared to be sworn in on the election’s results.
Astonishingly, our President emerged from the shadows to join Harmon in bashing CARICOM partners, as well as other international bodies and ambassadors to Guyana. The uncharacteristic outing of our President may have been a forecast of what was to come from the CARICOM team. On June 14th, the team issued its report, which stated that the Recount figures should be used by GECOM to declare the elections.
The wheels looked about to drop off the bus at that point. On June 20th, Ramjattan admitted to his staff, “The PPP/C has beaten us”. And Dominic Gaskin has urged APNU/AFC to stop deceiving its supporters.
Now our President has retraced to GECOM with an ever-so-slight twist on his May 17th statement. On July 15th, his office issued a statement that he would accept any GECOM declaration “made in the spirit of the law”.
The matter is before the High Court at this very moment.
Truly a man of The Word.
Sincerely,
Ron Cheong
