Granger intellectual author of conspiracy to rig elections – PPP

…says sanctions against APNU/AFC, electoral officials justified

The People Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) says that caretaker President David Granger — who is also the Leader of the PNCR, the leading party in the APNU faction of the Coalition — is behind the blatant attempts over the past four months to rig the March 2 General and Regional Elections in Guyana.

“No doubt, Mr. Granger is the intellectual author, and is in charge of the conspiracy to rig the March 2nd 2020 Election. Not once has he condemned the naked fraud attempted by [Region Four Returning Officer] Clairmont Mingo and [Chief Elections Officer] Keith Lowenfield,” the party said in a statement on Wednesday.
Back in March, Mingo had made two controversial declarations of the Region Four results, Guyana’s largest voting district. Those results were widely criticised by stakeholders as well as the international community as lacking transparency and credibility. This led to the conduct of a National Recount, during which it was unearthed that the RO had heavily inflated the numbers to give Granger’s Coalition a landslide victory.
According to the Recount Results, the PPP/C won the elections with 233,336 votes while the APNU/AFC obtained 217,920 votes – a difference of some 15,416 votes.

Despite directions from the Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh, CEO Lowenfield has failed on several occasions to submit his final elections report based on the Recount Results. In his two recent reports, he dumped over 115,000 votes in one report which was later invalidated by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), and in the other report, he used Mingo’s discarded figures to give the caretaker Coalition a win.
All of these reports have been rejected by the GECOM Chair, who has since instructed the CEO to resubmit his report using the Recount Figures, otherwise she would have the Deputy CEO prepare and submit the Elections Report in order to pave the way for the final declaration of the March 2 elections results. Lowenfield was supposed to present his report on Tuesday, but this was not done after APNU/AFC supporter Misegna Jones filed legal proceedings to block GECOM from going ahead with the declarations.
According to the PPP/C, this is another attempt to compel GECOM to declare perverted elections’ results so that Granger can steal the next Government.
“Every one of [Granger’s] Ministers (is) on record, in Guyana and overseas, canvassing support for their blatant attempts to corrupt the electoral process, and defending those who are directly carrying out this illicit design,” the party noted.
Among those persons, it said, are caretaker Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, Joseph Harmon, Raphael Trotman, Cathy Hughes and Khemraj Ramjattan.
The PPP/C said they have all hurled “vitriolic abuses” at every person and organisation locally, regionally and internationally who dared to criticise their conduct since March 2, 2020.
On the heels of international threats of serious consequences and sanctions if Guyana does not have a legitimate government, the United States on Wednesday announced visa restrictions for individuals responsible for, or complicit in, the undermining of democracy of Guyana. Those persons’ immediate family members are also affected.
The PPP/C, in its missive, said these sanctions against officials of Granger’s government as well as electoral officials are justified.
“These sanctions were long intimated. Granger and his Cabal mocked those who spoke of them. Now that the sanctions have finally come, he sanctimoniously pleads his and his Government’s innocence. Everyone acquainted with the facts would agree that the sanctions are justified in the circumstances,” the party noted.
However, in response to the US’ announcement, Granger’s caretaker administration denied participating in the undermining of the electoral process, or interfering with the functioning of GECOM.
But this, according to the PPP/C, is classic David Granger at work.
“Guyanese are well aware of the deceptive strategy of Granger; that is to say, remaining in the background and orchestrating his minions, including Ministers of his Government, candidates and leaders of his political party, his Commissioners at GECOM, and even his party supporters, to front his unconstitutional, undemocratic, illegal and sinister political agenda, and when they are exposed, he appears in the public with a glib denial of any wrongdoing and repeats his sanctimonious pledge to obey the Constitution, to adhere to the rule of law, to comply with court rulings, and to promise non-interference with the operation at GECOM,” the party noted.
It went on to detail that this is exactly the approach reflected in Government’s response to the US today. The party pointed out that in addition to denying undermining the electoral process, the Coalition Government is also urging all “to await the logical conclusion of it, which is being managed by the Elections Commission in accordance with the Constitution of Guyana”.
The PPP/C posited that “Guyana, the Caribbean, and indeed the Western Hemisphere can bear testimony, first hand, to Granger and his Government’s multiple, transparent and vulgar attempts at undermining the electoral process and interfering with GECOM in the discharge of its mandate in conducting elections and declaring the legal results of those elections.” (G8)