Ninety-seven days after the Guyanese nation went to the polls to exercise their franchise and choose their government for the next five years, we finally have a result that we hope the incumbent caretaker APNU/AFC coalition will accept. Over the last three months, the obduracy of that party to stretch the law to almost its breaking point to cling on to power had raised the temperatures of our already tense society to almost boiling point.
It all began with the passage of the No Confidence Motion in December 2018, a constitutional device that had been threatened in 2014 by the AFC and which precipitated early elections to truncate the PPP’s term by one year. Yet the APNU/AFC refused to obey the NCM’s dénouement to resign and schedule elections within three months. They went all the way to the CCJ, where they were embarrassingly told that the constitutional stricture “needed no gloss”. The embarrassment, however, fell only on the Guyanese people, since to delay elections by one year and remain in office, APNU/AFC were willing to argue that 33 was not the majority of 65 even though they had acceded to office on that majority.
Even after the CCJ’s decision, the APNU/AFC regime continued to throw obstacles in the way of elections by insisting that House-to-House registration, which had been clandestinely initiated by Granger’s illegally-appointed GECOM Chair James Patterson, be completed. Finally, after many twists and turns, elections were scheduled for March 2, 2020. The Guyanese people breathed a collective sigh of relief hoping that the hard-won reforms in the electoral system after two decades of rigging by the PNC in the 1960s to 1980s would ensure they democratically choose their government according to the rule of law.
But as we know to our disappointment and chagrin, this was not to be: the APNU/AFC combine were willing to blatantly rig the elections, literally in full view of the world. We do not have to reprise the series of unfortunate shenanigans that followed Region 4 RO Clairmont Mingo’s illegal sleight of hand with the SoPs when he was simply required to total them transparently in front of the stakeholders. The Guyanese collective psyche had to have become scarred with the experience of such epistemic violence being inflicted by individuals occupying such high office.
It took the intervention of the Courts and the Caricom Heads of Government – in a personal visit to Guyana – to work out an agreement, suggested by caretaker President Granger, for a full recount of the ballots to be undertaken. Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo agreed to this endeavour even though GECOM did not reject the concocted Region 4 SoP totals of Mingo that snatched victory from the PPP for APNU/AFC, but held those figures “in abeyance”.
It was clear from the beginning that the robust electoral system designed to prevent rigging had worked, since with the signal instance of the Mingo-concocted numbers, the SoPs in the possession of the political parties and those posted outside polling stations had matched and these showed the PPP comfortably winning. Most observers concluded that the call for a recount was simply a ruse by APNU/AFC to throw a wrench into the verdict of the people for them to demit office.
The strategy became clear when they arbitrarily started to make random objections to almost every box about “migrants” and “dead” persons on the list voting: their plan was to have the elections be declared void because they were not credible. However, it was soon proven after details were provided about these objections that they were mere allegations concededly made on hearsay and not evidence.
With the completion of the recount, all Guyana are hoping that Caretaker Granger will keep his commitment to accept the result of the recount and have his caretaker Administration participate in a smooth transition to a new PPP/C Government.
A battle-weary nation needs a break from the tension and deserves some peace to get on with their lives.
