Dear Editor,
If it were not obvious from the beginning, it is obvious now. The APNU/AFC, with a willing and able Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) was never interested in a recount. Barring them not being able to tamper with the containers and ballot boxes, they already knew the outcome of a transparent and credible recount.
Thus Keith Lowenfield’s 156-day recount plan, however temporary and a work in progress, is yet another insult to the intelligence of the Guyanese people and the international community. Such a proposal is as asinine as David Hinds’s suggestion to scrap the elections and destroy the ballot boxes. A recount should not take more than a week, much less five (5) months.
There is little doubt that trust and confidence in GECOM have deteriorated over the last several weeks. And whatever little uncertainty remained, this latest stunt has surely solidified how corrupt and biased this constitutional agency has become.
As long as Lowenfield and Myers remain at GECOM, the recount will be thwarted. Their actions, or lack thereof during the embarrassing Region Four tabulation exercise, speak volumes. They will continue to take orders from their political masters to the detriment of the country, and we will be no closer to a credible declaration of the results.
What makes you think they will suddenly see the light and act professionally? Thus, the strident calls to remove Mingo from the recount process should have been equally applicable to Lowenfield and Myers.
With each passing day, the country grows wearier. While a transparent and credible recount is in the best interest of Guyana and all her people, it is certainly not in the best interest of the APNU-AFC cabal. It would seem that their hatred for the political opposition is so deep and troubling that they are willing to sacrifice the entire country in the process. Intentionally or unintentionally, they have also managed to successfully create a new generation of riggers and haters, while simultaneously creating a new generation of non-supporters.
APNU’s best chance was to convince those on the periphery to support them. Now even those prospective supporters are gone. If there was any question that the APNU-AFC and GECOM could be trusted, that notion went out the window weeks ago.
And so the charade to deny the Guyanese people the right to democratically elect a government of their choice continues. It is time the international community make good on their promises to institute sanctions, as it is evident that these wrongdoers would stop at nothing to sabotage the outcome of these elections.
Yours faithfully,
Omchand Mahdu
