Dear Editor,
Finally, it seems that the PNC will be unable to rig any election in Guyana, be it the local Government or the Regional and General Elections, since safeguards are put in place to ensure that the GECOM election machinery is uncompromised and is capable of delivering a free, fair and credible election.
The GECOM has been sanitised at last.
It must be recalled that both GECOM top officials, the CEO, Keith Lowenfield, and the DCEO, Roxanne Myers, are facing criminal charges for electoral fraud when they blatantly attempted to rig the 2020 elections. The list includes Region Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) member Carol Smith-Joseph, former Health Minister under the former A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Government Volda Lawrence and former GECOM employees Sheffern February, Enrique Livan, Denise Babb-Cummings and Michelle Miller. The real riggers have been decommissioned.
Yet despite the fact that when those charged are analysed, the PNC involvement is undeniable, the APNU and the AFC falsely claimed that it was the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) which rigged the 2020 elections. This is so preposterous. Therefore, being unable to now rig the 2025 elections, what is the game plan of the PNC (APNU)?
The Leader of the Opposition and the Presidential candidate of the APNU is now making public utterances that the PPP/C will rig the 2025 elections since he claimed that the voters list is ‘padded’ (it was the APNU who could have called for a new voters list back in 2020 but had agreed to go ahead with the 2020 elections, being confident of their rigging competency).
Norton should know that the Court had ruled existing registrants cannot be excised from a new voters’ list unless they are deceased or otherwise disqualified under Article 159 (2), (3) or (4). Guyanese residents living abroad cannot be deleted from the list.
His next piece of ‘irrefutable evidence’ is the non-introduction of biometrics at the place of poll. A statement from GECOM had clarified that ‘the introduction of such technology was premised on allegations of voter impersonation at places of poll and that such a feature could serve as an additional mechanism for enhancing the system of identifying voters on election day’.
However, the learnt Attorney General made it clear that the Opposition is using the absence of biometrics as a “smokescreen to undermine the electoral process”. He further pointed out that, “We already have biometrics – fingerprints, photographs, and distinguishing marks – recorded and integrated into our voter registration process,” hence the credibility of the elections will not be affected.
With the current safeguards there is no possibility of electoral fraud.
It would seem that whenever the PNC loses an election, it is due to ‘fraud’. When in 2020 the Coalition lost that election, they claimed that the PPP/C rigged it, and now in 2025, Norton is again laying the groundwork that the PPP/C will rig this election.
So here is the scenario: if the PPP/C wins, then it rigged the election, but if it loses, then the election was ‘free and fair’. This is most preposterous and senseless. But what was most horrifying was his statement that ‘rigging will not be accepted; there will be serious consequences for attempting to rig the elections’. Therefore, it would seem that it would seem to be in our national interest and survival that the PPP/C los the 2025 elections to avert these threats from being materialised.
No wonder Norton refused to sign to abide by the ERC’s Code of Conduct. Lastly, a word of advice to Norton: ‘this time na lang time’ – this may be your last stand, so don’t destroy yourself.
Yours Sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf
