…long and winding elections
Elections in Guyana have never been easy, but this one is taking it into new territory. To paraphrase what the Beatles crooned in their “It’s a long and winding road”, it always leads back to the door of the PNC and their indecent lust for power at any cost. For one brief and shining moment in the inaugural 1953 elections, all was well as Jagan brought Burnham and other nationalists on one platform against the Brits.
But the canker of ambition and power ate away at the heart of Burnham, and he succumbed to the blandishments of the outsiders and shattered the nationalist movement that’s never been able to come together again. The first rig was in 1964 when the Brits gamed the system from FPTP to PR, knowing full well they’d already persuaded Burnham and D’Aguiar to coalesce and shut out the PPP. Never mind the virtual civil war that tore the society apart before and after the change in the electoral rules.
Guyana had the first elections observed by the Commonwealth because of the stakes involved. There was no principle that brought them together, except cold calculation on the part of Burnham and hatred from D’Aguiar. And, of course, they fell asunder before their term was out!
Guyana
The winding road led to the PNC rigging the elections of 1968, 1973, 1980, and 1985, with detours and doubling-back to rig a referendum to ensure Burnham’s new constitution giving him absolute power was passed, although not by the people. Each had its own twist: from English horses voting in 1968, to the GDF counting ballots in 1973, and rushing polling stations in 1985. Those long years of experience with rigging elections has obviously left such deep institutional memory of the tactic that it is almost impossible for the PNC to accept that the voice of the people should be given expression to choose their leaders.
After the first free and fair elections in 1992 – made possible by the Americans via the Carter Center – the PNC would violently contest the 1997 elections, which virtually mirrors their strategy in these elections after it was clear that they lost.
After insisting they had won based on Mingo’s fiddled numbers, the PNC’s now on a campaign to convince god-knows-who that the elections are “not credible”. So we have claims of dead and migrated people voting; fake IDs used, and now the latest: that 8000 Disciplined Forces votes were “spoiled” and “stolen” through not being properly stamped when opened by dastardly Presiding Officers!! Yes…they were all for the PPP!
So where will this particular twist in the road lead? Of course, back to the PNC’s door! The question is: who’ll evict them from the house?!!
…wonder Mingo’s free
The PNC’s insisting that GECOM’s Reg 4 RO, Clairmont Mingo, is being unfairly targeted for “rigging”, when there’s no proof of any such charge. Imagine that!! This after the High Court ruled that his first attempt to hoodwink dozens of observers and ambassadors with his three-card-monte routine on the last set of 378 SOPs had violated the law!! And he was told to correct the deficiency by showing everyone the SOPs he was using for his totals; yet, he repeated his sleight-of-hand, this time using a soiled bedsheet!! Ewww!
There’s an outstanding contempt of court petition against him to be heard, but the question your Eyewitness has is: Now that there’s a daily parade of Mingoed ballot boxes exposed in the recount, isn’t this enough evidence to charge him with grand theft of an election for the PNC? Well, we know he didn’t do the dirty with those flash drives, but that only makes the culprits on the GECOM staff – who’ve been identified – accessories to the crime!!
Justice must be done. Book Mingo!!
…crock
Stanley Ming’s repeating Granger’s insistence that, statistically, the voters list’s “bloated”, and this led to “fraud”.
The court has ruled you can’t remove folks from the list, save for death or imbecility! So, migrants are still on.
