Guyana will soon be “shocked” by revelations of fraud under APNU/AFC – Jagdeo

…says no honest interlocutor in parliamentary Opposition

As the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) Administration strives to ensure there is more inclusivity in Government, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo lamented that there is no honest interlocutor among the main parliamentary Opposition, the APNU/AFC coalition which is now led by Joseph Harmon.

Delivering his contribution to the 2020 Budget Debate on Friday, Jagdeo said: “there is no honest interlocutor on the other side.”
“In Parliament today were the ones who not only sought to steal the elections, but they have absolutely no remorse about it and you see the arrogance about the attempt to steal the elections,” Jagdeo told the National Assembly during his virtual presentation.
“How could they reasonably be honest interlocutors…How do you work with people who have no remorse about the role they played in trying to divide our country and attempt to steal a whole election?”
According to Jagdeo, there might have been some persons in the People’s National Congress (PNC) who had a vision of truly working together, but they have since been “disseminated and removed” by the current leadership in favour of people who have stuck with the “rigging narrative”.
He explained that the PPP/C needs a partner on the other side who, when situations get tough “as they often do”, would have the courage to “stand up and speak the truth to their base”.
In fact, Jagdeo pointed out that this is the first time in history that “there are individuals who have been sanctioned in Guyana and may face further sanctions internationally for trying to steal an election and I dare say, Mr Speaker, some of those sanctioned individuals may be current members of the National Assembly.”
The David Granger-led APNU/AFC coalition put the country through five tumultuous months as it desperately tried to alter the results of the election and illegally hang on to power even though it was massively defeated at the March 2 polls.
After a series of court battles and intense international pressure including sanctions from the USA, the Granger regime finally conceded defeat, paving the way for the swearing-in of Dr Irfaan Ali as President on August 2.
In fact, the APNU/AFC had been illegally occupying the seat of Government for some two years, since it delayed the holding of elections in March 2019 – which was constitutionally mandated after it was defeated by the passage of a No-Confidence Motion in the National Assembly.
Now, persons who have been identified as being part and parcel of attempts of electoral fraud are before the courts as the police continue to investigate, and Jagdeo informed the National Assembly that APNU/AFC players “warmly embraced” those persons. Responding to the presenter before him, APNU/AFC’s Roysdale Forde – one of the attorneys who fought the coalition’s battles in the court – Jagdeo called out his “great affinity for the use of the word ‘fraudulent’.”
In this regard, Jagdeo announced that the country will, in time, be “shocked” by the revelations of high fraudulence by former officials of the Granger regime including instances of bribery which occurred under the Gaming Authority, which was headed by Forde.
“The Gaming Authority…we found a lot of fraudulent transactions, requests for bribes to issue licenses, etc… more shall be heard about that soon,” Jagdeo said.
He further stated that there was a great magnitude of fraud regarding fuel smuggling where “billions of dollars of revenue were stolen” – a scheme, he told the National Assembly, that involved high officials of the former regime.
The Vice President went on to state that there was “criminality” that took place at NICIL where largescale transfer of resources obtained, again, involving many high officials of the past Administration, who, he said, were “neck-deep” in those transactions.
With the new PPP/C Administration just assuming the reigns of Government, Jagdeo told the National Assembly that over the course of the “next year or so”, there shall be a number of investigations into these instances of which he spoke.
In fact, Jagdeo drew a correlation between the current behaviour of the APNU/AFC officials and the impending investigations into their actions whilst in Government.
He referred to their cries of discrimination in relation to the investigations into the events of the past five months, specifically the attempts of electoral fraud. And according to Jagdeo, “I know why they are behaving this way and want to stir up trouble.”
He told the National Assembly that because of “their deep involvement” and because they know of the investigations to follow, and “that they will have to face the courts and the justice system”, these officials will want to claim “discrimination”. (G11)