APNU/AFC’s attempts to deceive int’l community “humiliating” – FITUG

The David Granger-led A Partnership For National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Coalition has once again come under fire – this time for trying to mislead the international community by propagating false information during the Organisation of American States’ Permanent Council Meeting on Tuesday.

De facto Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr Karen Cummings and Attorney General Basil Williams were specifically blasted by this major trade union umbrella body for causing Guyana further embarrassment and humiliation on the world stage by peddling untruths about the current political climate in the country.
In a missive on Wednesday, the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) shared their disdain and shock over the blatant falsehoods uttered by the two senior APNU/AFC officials at the meeting held to discuss Guyana’s prolonged electoral crisis.
“The contributions of both senior Government officials could only be described, in our view, (as) only (serving) to bring further embarrassment to our people,” FITUG said, adding that both Cummings and Williams peddled “clearly false narratives” in an attempt to “mislead the OAS”.
“This, we contend, is tantamount to seeking to insult the intelligence of the hemispheric body,” FITUG surmised.
Williams blatantly told the OAS that “the CCJ [Caribbean Court of Justice] never made a ruling that the results of the Recount must be used by GECOM to determine the results of the elections”, when such an assertion is clearly inaccurate, since in its written judgement in the Eslyn David case, the regional court said, “Unless and until an election court decides otherwise, the votes already counted by the Recount process as valid votes are incapable of being declared invalid by any person or authority.”
On the other hand, Cummings told the OAS that the APNU/AFC Coalition has not interfered in the electoral process; but it is the APNU/AFC, through its supporters, that has been approaching the courts, time after time, to block the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) from making a declaration based on the Recount results, which show that the Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) won the March 2 elections.
According to FITUG, it had to wonder whether the coalition Government sincerely believed that the OAS is unaware of the reality in Guyana. “We consider the OAS, and by extension its members, most informed about Guyana’s state-of-affairs. We do not believe for any moment that the OAS accepted the slanted opinions and cherry-picking of certain aspects of Court pronouncements by the Government. The fact that the de-facto Administration thinks it can really hoodwink the OAS, and by extension the world, is most humiliating,” the trade union umbrella organisation asserted.
FITUG noted that the convening of that special meeting by the OAS is a demonstration of the seriousness of the situation that is currently unfolding in the country. In fact, the organisation expressed that, “The interventions of our hemispheric brothers and sisters was a vivid demonstration that they were not sidetracked or sucked in by the propaganda of the coalition regime.”
FITUG pointed out that, during the meeting, the country’s international partners were most forthright in their calls for the APNU/AFC to accept the will of the people and exit office. Indeed, presentations by countries like the United States of America, Canada, Brazil, Colombia, and even Venezuela, all had one united call for the coalition to concede defeat and allow for the democratic transition of government in Guyana.
FITUG said it shares the view that the prolongation of the process, which is quickly approaching five months, must be brought to a swift and peaceful end.
“There is need for a transition in Government as the economy tethers and the lives of thousands of Guyanese hang in the balance. The selfish ways of a greedy few should not be allowed to persist, but democracy must triumph,” FITUG affirmed.
The PPP/C has won the elections by 233,336 votes – as proven by a National Recount of all the votes cast in the country on March 2, but the APNU/AFC is refusing to concede defeat, wanting instead for the election declaration to be based on fraudulent figures deriving from a flawed tabulation process – a major anomaly which prompted the National Recount in the first place.