David Granger says he will accept the results of the recount. But Alexander claims GECOM will not automatically use the recount results. Why then the recount and what results will Granger accept? By now, with the Wednesday newspapers out, the long-awaited and long-delayed, on-and-off recount for the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections might finally be on the way, hopefully.
APNU/AFC and GECOM know the recount will prove, without a shadow of doubt, the PPP is the winner. It is the reason why APNU/AFC, with GECOM’s full complicity, has stubbornly obstructed the recount for almost two months, leaving Guyana with another shameful Guinness World Record – the country with the longest wait ever for an election result. APNU/AFC and GECOM’s focus now is on creating confusion and somewhere in the confusion finding another criminal excuse to discount the actual votes and to continue squatting in government.
GECOM is actively collaborating with APNU/AFC in this goal. It is the reason why APNU/AFC and GECOM have moved from a recount to illegally conducting an audit. Their focus is no longer on who the people voted for; they have given up on that.
Their focus is on finding the “i” that was not dotted and the “t” that was not crossed by one or more of the 2339 presiding officers. The experienced observer will not tolerate APNU/AFC and GECOM’s trivialities to dismiss the will of the people. It is why APNU/AFC is so desperate to keep the Carter Center and other international observers away.
With the attempted live-streamed rigging of the Region Four tabulation after March 3 and the subsequent shenanigans of GECOM and APNU/AFC, international observers had to leave, with a promise they would be back once the recount got underway. However, now the Government has denied permission for the Carter Center and the IRI observers to be present. The excuse is the COVID-19 lockdown. The same COVID-19 Task Force did not stop the Caricom team to come in.
The Governments of the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union have urged APNU/AFC to permit the Carter Center to enter the country. The UN and the OAS have joined in the appeal to APNU/AFC to allow the Carter Center to come and, therefore, to add to the transparency of the recount. Local and international organisations have appealed to David Granger.
These pleas have been totally ignored, so far. The GECOM Chair promised to personally meet with the COVID-19 Task Force to have them give the go-ahead for the Carter Center and other international observers to come. But as of Monday night, there is no indication that either the Task Force or David Granger will act to allow these observers to be in Guyana on time for the start of the recount.
The COVID-19 excuse is totally bogus. What is “good for the gander must be good for the goose”. Why is it that the COVID-19 Task Force can find a way to allow the Caricom team in, but object to the Carter Center team coming? Clearly, it is not COVID-19 related. Is it that APNU/AFC believe they can take their chances with the three-person Caricom team? Is it that APNU/AFC believe the Caricom team will give them the benefit of the doubt, given that Caricom was silent throughout the No-Confidence fiasco? Is it that they believe the Carter Center is too experienced for them to be fooled?
The truth is that Caricom did not tolerate GECOM and APNU/AFC’s criminal behaviour after March 3 and Caricom will not standby this time around and permit GECOM and APNU/AFC to manipulate the results during the recount. Caricom did not give them the benefit of the doubt because there was no doubt that GECOM and APNU/AFC tried to rig the Region Four results.
The whole world saw it; there was no benefit of the doubt for any observer to give. The recount, similarly, will show clearly who won the election, there will be no doubt. The simple truth is APNU/AFC is left with no choice but to gamble, in the stupid belief that a Caricom team is more likely to give them a lifeline, should they be able to point out that an “i” was not dotted or a “t” was not crossed.
The world knows GECOM was complicit with APNU/AFC to thief the elections. The GECOM Chair has joined with the rigging cabal in GECOM to allow a process that provides an opportunity for confusion. The simultaneous counting of different regions, the procedures to ensure Region 4 results are not available until the end or close to the end, the divergence from a recount process to more of an audit process create the perfect milieu for confusion.
They will use the most trivial of reasons as an excuse to disavow the elections and the free and fair votes of the people. Observers and Caricom must not permit the sinister motives of APNU/AFC and GECOM to block the will of the people. The international community has spoken firmly in the last two months. The time has now come for action to match words. The only way the rigging cabal will budge is if they feel – they and their families must be sanctioned.
