Counted ballots only way to end election uproar – PSC Chairman

…says ‘truth always triumphs’

Chairman of the Private Sector Commission, Captain Gerry Gouveia on Thursday addressed the current elections debacle facing the nation, where he emphasized the need for a count of all ballots casted during the March 2 National and Regional elections.

Appearing on a live stream on his social media page, Gouveia indicated that this is the only way to return Guyana to normalcy and restore its democratic powers. Presently, with parties claiming their victories, he said this count will seek to reveal the actual winner.
“There is only one way this will end in Guyana. The only way this will end is with the counting of the ballots in those boxes. That is only one way and we don’t know; I certainly don’t know who is the winner of these elections. Everybody thinks they will win. There is only one way we would know and there is only one way we will protect the truth, the democracy and return Guyana to a place like that,” he asserted.
He added, “Regardless of what anybody says, regardless of how long it takes, those ballots will be counted. And anybody that believe otherwise, that believe you could stop it, I would say you could run but you can’t hide…Anyone that argues against transparency in a democratic election cannot be on the right side.”
Zeroing in on the last three weeks, the PSC Chair said that there are forces acting against the truth, and this is being viewed internationally. According to him, the truth will come to light.
“There are some forces that is trying to take Guyana back into some dark times but the truth will prevail…If you listen to the people around the world talking about what is happening, you cannot not believe and you cannot continue to stand on the side of the forces that are against the truth. I’m not even talking about democracy. I’m talking about the forces of the truth.”
Speaking about the operations of the Guyana Elections Commission, Gouveia pointed out that there are persons imbedded in the secretariat whose actions have ignited conflicts and as such, they must be contained.
“The truth always triumphs. I don’t see this yet as a conflict between political parties. I see this as a conflict with GECOM. I see this where there are people in GECOM that needed to be corralled. We need to ensure that these people are contained,” he shared.
Mere hours after President David Granger and Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo, inked an agreement to have a Caribbean Community (Caricom) team of specialists supervise a recount of the March 2, 2020, General and Regional Elections, an APNU/AFC candidate petitioned the High Court for any injunction to block the activity on Tuesday. Stakeholders had expected this process to bring the delayed conundrum to an end.
On Tuesday afternoon, the high-level Caricom team along with Secretary-General Irwin LaRoque, visited the GECOM Secretariat, where they formally withdrew from the recounting – a process which they would have offered oversight.
This was later confirmed by the Secretariat, which indicated via a statement, “The high-level independent Caricom delegation has indicated that they would withdraw from the process.”
The smooth elections process was railroaded into disaster after Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo started using a spreadsheet to verify the District Four data, instead of using the Statement of Polls.