Dear Editor,
I have intently listened to former President’s Bharat Jagdeo’s speech that he delivered at the 2018 Babu Jaan commemoration ceremony for Dr Cheddi Jagan. It was one of his better speeches. I was happy that he has declared a position on the state of potentially rigged elections in 2020.
I, like him, am of the firm belief that even if the Granger Administration tries, it cannot win rigged elections in Guyana in 2020. The system will not adequately facilitate such a situation, especially if a strong diplomatic and civil-society presence is launched. Counting of the ballots at the places of poll and having signed and completed Statements of Poll in the hands of the scrutineers are two powerful tools against the forces bent on rigging any elections.
To further strengthen the forces that are working tirelessly for free and fair elections and elections that are free from fear, it would be a bonus if more Guyanese volunteer for GECOM roles, EAB roles, and civil society roles, to ensure the elections are properly conducted and observed. Sitting on the sidelines and resigning yourself to the thought that the PNC will rig the elections would only serve the undemocratic and anti-national forces who want to take Guyana back to the dark days of the 1980 elections, when horses and donkeys in Manchester, England were voting in the Guyana elections.
The people must stand up now and ensure that democracy prevails, as happens in the United States of America and in other constitutional democracies. All the political parties have a national responsibility to ensure that they each have 2,000 strong and committed scrutineers trained from now to ensure every box is observed and counted from start to end, when they receive the signed statement of poll (SOP) at their command centre.
There must be no room for anyone to abandon their post, and that is why from now scrutineers must be identified and trained, to weed out those who are not up to the task. When the domestic terrorists come and rock the doors at the polling stations, the scrutineers must stand their ground at all cost. Even if those bent on rigging the elections stuff the boxes in the usual suspected areas, they cannot stuff more than 10,000 votes.
Mr Jagdeo said the PPP will win by 50,000 votes; so, in his case, that 10,000 cannot overturn the will of the people.
The political parties have to ensure they have well trained political operators at every polling station, unlike some of the mediocre people they had in 2015, who abandoned their post when the domestic terrorists started to rock the doors of the polling places in some areas.
I remember my time as a scrutineer at Freeburg School in Lodge in the 1992 elections. When the PNC thugs came and started to rock the door, my resolve then became stronger. I stood my ground as in my mind I recited a poem by Rabindranath Tagore with which I had armed myself. The only way they were going to steal the SOP from me in 1992 was over my dead body.
But I must commend the Police in 1992, who did a fantastic job of bringing calm to a situation at that polling station. Those of us who served in 1992 stood up to the PNC thugs, and we did it at no financial benefit to us then, but at great personal risk.
I am hearing today the parties have to pay people to do this job. I think this is where the problem is: some people uncommitted to the struggle are doing the job for money, and when the going gets tough, they bail out. I think the political parties should start screening their scrutineers from now, to weed out those who are going to bail out when the PNC thugs come to rock the doors in some areas.
In closing, I would like to share that poem that was occupying my mind when fear was uppermost in my mind as a young 20-year-old lad in a room in Freeburg School on Durban Street. It is called “Where the Mind is without Fear”.
Where The Mind Is Without Fear
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”
ALUTA CONTINUA!
Sincerely,
Sasenarine Singh
