Granger snubs coalition partner’s call for APNU/AFC to concede

…refuses to accept defeat unless notified by GECOM

As both local and international calls mount for the APNU/AFC to concede defeat in the March 2 elections, Leader of the Coalition, caretaker President David Granger, has distanced himself from similar calls within his party.

During an interview on the sidelines of an event at State House on Wednesday, Granger refused to comment on a recent statement by Alliance For Change (AFC) Executive Dominic Gaskin, who is also his son-in-law.
In a Facebook post two weeks ago, Gaskin, a former Business Minister in Granger’s Cabinet, said there is “no reasonable basis” on which the APNU/AFC can claim to have won more votes than the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) at the March 2 elections, and called on the Coalition to “level” with their supporters.
Asked by Guyana Times on Wednesday to comment on this, the Head of State said, “No, I don’t have any comments on what former ministers say.”

However, he did respond to the statement by the Justice For All Party (JFAP) – one of the five parties that make up the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) faction of the Coalition.
The CN Sharma-led JFAP had conceded defeat, and had congratulated the PPP/C on its victory at the polls.
“I am appealing to the persons who are determined on delaying the process of a declaration: It has been an exhausting 108 days for all the sons and daughters of this nation. Enough is enough, I say it is time for Guyana to move on!” Sharma had stated in his missive on June 20.

But Granger, who is also the leader of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) – the leading partying in the APNU faction – has contended that the JFAP acted on its own accord, and noted that he is not responsible for what the party has said.
“I do not dictate what they say, although I have every expectation that what they say and do would be in accord with the principles of the entire Partnership. And we meet, and the Justice For All Party has not been excluded, especially over the past 17 weeks, from any meetings of the APNU…We’ve always explained the process which is being pursued and the line which our Partnership was taking. There is no secret, and all six parties [within the Coalition] are aware of the positions which have been taken in our approach to the Elections Commission. We don’t have any hidden agenda within the Coalition,” President Granger has said.
Moreover, the caretaker President has responded to mounting calls from both local and international stakeholders for his party to concede defeat.
“I cannot claim victory, which I have not done; and I cannot concede victory, which I have not done; unless I am notified formally by the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission what the results of the elections of the 2nd March – 121 days ago, over 17 weeks – have been. I don’t know what the Elections Commission will declare,” he posited.
Granger went on to say, “I encourage all the spokespersons and commentators to wait patiently on the Chairman of the Elections Commission, who, when she’s ready, will make a declaration, and I said before I’ll abide by that declaration.”
However, while the caretaker Head of State has reiterated his commitment to abide by GECOM’s declaration, his party had move to the courts, through its supporter Eslyn David, to block GECOM from moving ahead with the process.
Further, his utterance that he never claimed victory is completely opposite to what has played out since March, when the Coalition began claiming victory – something which the 33-day National Recount has proven otherwise.
The recount exercise conducted under the scrutiny of a special Caribbean Community (Caricom) team shows the PPP/C in a landslide victory with some 15,416 more votes than the APNU/AFC.
Despite being asked to prepare a report based on the results of the recount, embattled Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield last week submitted a report to the seven-member Elections Commission in which he invalidated more than 115,000 votes based on the Coalition’s unsubstantiated claims of irregularities.
However, Gaskin in his social post on June 20, has stated that these claims were “grossly exaggerated” and, unfortunately, “designed to fool” party supporters, who had placed their faith in the Coalition into believing that there was actual evidence of serious elections rigging by the PPP/C.
“All of this leads me to a very uncomfortable conclusion: The APNU+AFC has no intention of relinquishing control of government. Five years after winning an election and gaining office with a fair amount of goodwill, the coalition is saying to the people who put us there the equivalent of, ‘unless and until WE are satisfied beyond a shadow of a doubt that “more votes are cast” in favour of another party in an election that WE deem credible, WE ain’t going nowhere”. That condition will never be satisfied,” Gaskin asserted.