Dear Editor,
I conversed and/or interacted with Caribbean diaspora people in New York and also around the Caribbean region as pertains to Guyana’s March 2 elections.
They urge the Chair of GECOM, Claudette Singh, to correct the election report submitted by Lowenfield and bring the election process to closure. They also poke fun at Guyana and Guyanese over the behaviour of some Government judges. With Government officials criticising the CCJ and Lowenfield defying the CCJ’s ruling and GECOM’s orders, they ask whether Guyana is a lawless society.
Guyana has been lawless since the 1960s, with acts of election-rigging, bullying, racism, kick-down-the-door banditry, and choke-and-rob occurring.
Guyanese in the diaspora and at home have been the subject of ridicule for the last eighteen months — since the no confidence motion of December 21, 2018 — over math, English, and now law.
Caricom people and American colleagues where Guyanese are employed have made vexatious snide remarks that we Guyanese don’t know simple maths. They say even Guyanese judges don’t know how to calculate a simple majority that a three-year-old American knows.
Then they say we Guyanese don’t know simple English, that we had to ask a court to define or explain “more votes than” when a three-year-old American could give an explicit meaning. It does not mean “more valid votes”. All votes are valid, or else they would not be counted, as the CCJ so advised two judges of the Court of Appeal.
Now Caribbean nationals and White Americans are telling us Guyanese that we don’t understand simple law. The CCJ is the final court of Guyana. Its ruling is law. It cannot be appealed or defied; it must be enforced. A three-year-old American knows that fact, but Lowenfield and one political party and some of its supporters don’t seem to understand the law on court rulings. One may not like a court ruling, but one has to abide by it.
The CCJ instructed Lowenfield to prepare an elections report in accordance with the valid votes of the recount. He cannot submit to GECOM a report based on the (Mingo) count. It must be based on the recount (stressed), not the count. If one does not follow the law, or GECOM does not enforce the ruling, and the court does not uphold laws or judicial rulings, then Guyana becomes a lawless society. The law of the jungle takes over.
Even during the worst period of Jim Crow racism in America, when the Supreme Court ruled favourably toward black Americans, the white authorities enforced the ruling they disliked. That was the law; racist white folks enforced the rights of black Americans. The votes of black Americans were counted and used in declaration of winners in elections, several of whom were blacks.
Lowenfield’s behaviour in defying GECOM is lawlessness. It is the informed opinion of Guyanese and other Caribbean people in New York that Lowenfield should be held accountable; he must be disciplined for insubordination, and terminated from his position. (PS: almost every Caribbean people has been following the Guyana election matter ever since the coalition lost the no-confidence motion. Everyone has condemned the Government for not abiding by the democratic principle that follows a defeat of an NCM (hold fresh election) and not respecting the outcome of a free and fair election.
Madame Chair of GECOM, Caribbean people urge you to correct Lowenfield’s fake report and proceed with a declaration as instructed by the CCJ! The law is on your side.
Yours truly,
Dr Vishnu Bisram
