The Caricom Community on Tuesday had no other choice than to withdraw its high-level team that was sent to Guyana to supervise the recount of ballots here following the fraudulent and illegal declaration that was made by Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo, which marred the elections verification process, which was up until that time was running smoothly.
“It is clear that there are forces that do not want to see the votes recounted for whatever reason. Any Government which is sworn in without a credible and fully transparent vote count process would lack legitimacy,” Caricom Chair Mia Mottley said on Tuesday evening.
Having attempted to assist in the recount as a way of ensuring that democracy is not comprised, Mottley has now joined in the regional and international condemnation of illegal and unverified results for the March 2, 2020 elections.
Guyana again stands on the verge of returning to a full-fledged dictatorship that oppressed the nation from 1964-1992. When the legal verification and tabulation process using Statements of Poll (SoP) was abruptly ended and a winner indicated, democracy was snatched in the presence of the piercing eyes of the world.
It was the most blatant suppression of freewill that one could have witnessed and was done with complete contempt for the Constitution and disregard for people’s rights. It remains utterly perplexing as to why, having used the SoPs from political parties and the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to verify and tabulate results for nine Administrative Regions, and having results declared that were corresponded and uncontested, the same could not be done for Region Four.
The subsequent action of the Returning Officer (RO) to abort the process and illegally declare unverified results is therefore wicked, disingenuous, and blatantly disrespectful to the Guyanese people and the international community.
Such action was nothing short of barefaced electoral rigging and is a cold and frightening reminder of what transpired for almost three decades of dictatorial rule. It also demonstrated an uncaring disposition to the consequences that would inevitably be brought to bear on Guyana and Guyanese.
It can only be seen as the culmination of previous calculative actions, including President David Granger’s unconstitutional and unilateral appointment of Justice James Patterson as the GECOM Chairman; unnecessary and deliberate court action to defy the Constitution following the December 21, 2018, No-Confidence Motion (NCM), and the audacious disregard of the rulings and consequential orders of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
Given the illegal declaration of Region Four results, it is irrefutable that those actions noted were strategic to have a timeline along with cronies to effect what took place. Mr Granger and his coalition have their SoPs and know the actual results.
They must have known they had lost, for how else can the abrupt ending of the verification and tabulation process be explained? They must have known that, had the process continued in a lawful manner, despite winning Region Four, the margin would not have been enough to overtake the PPP/C. With such knowledge, they knew that a mechanism had to be implemented to facilitate their stay in Government.
Given what transpired, it is extremely difficult not to conclude that the illegal declaration and the subsequent clearing of the GECOM office, which left the SoPs out of sight of party representatives and observers, were facilitated by Government cronies within the Secretariat.
The international community and Caricom have all deemed the declaration of Region Four results illegal, and have warned that Granger must not be sworn in. Under these circumstances and in the face of sanctions, the President is expected to act in the best interest of the country and its people.
Clearly, it is not about who wins but about ensuring the process to determine the winner is lawful and transparent. His hypocrisy is as indisputable as the disgrace he unnecessarily brought to the country.
