Home Letters Opposition is running, but will not find a safe hiding place
Dear Editor,
I have perused yet again that the long-delayed election fraud court matters are about to be resumed, (but) with a fresh set of “preliminary issues” to be resolved. Now the trial will be held in the Georgetown court of Acting Chief Magistrate Faith McGusty, who has taken over the trial from her predecessor, Senior Magistrate Leron Daly, who had been on medical leave since September 2024.
This trial involves several high-profile defendants, all accused of conspiring to rig the results of the 2020 National Elections. However, the ‘elusive’ trial remains in limbo, as it is set to resume with a fresh set of legal issues that must first be resolved. What a waste of time, and more so with 2025 ‘elections fever’ already in the air.
I say what a waste of time because this is the way of the Opposition, whether it is the PNC (People’s National Congress) or the PNC within the APNU/AFC (A Partnership For National Unity/Alliance For Change).
Let me illustrate. First, it took a long wait of some five months after the March 2020 Guyana Elections for the then-opposition candidate, Irfaan Ali, to be been sworn in as Guyana’s president. The PPP/C took office in August all because the country had to deal with the unnecessary allegations of vote tampering, a recount and a lengthy legal battle. Dr Ali, the winner, was inaugurated only in early August 2020.
Indeed, this was a waste of time, and a shame too, as the entire world was witness to the rigging attempts that followed the March 2020 polls. And why? It was only because of infantile gamesmanship, as all had to await the pronouncement of the CCJ (Caribbean Court of Justice) before ‘right’ was enacted. That ‘right and Rule of Law’, as expected, came about when the CCJ, in July 2020, threw out a controversial Guyana Court of Appeal decision that inserted the word “valid” into the consideration of votes for the election of a president.
In that judgement, CCJ President Adrian Saunders explained that the decision of the Guyana Court of Appeal was ‘null and void’ and of ‘no effect’ — (So, after all the time-wasting) clearing the way for GECOM (Guyana Elections Commission) Chair Justice Claudette Singh to immediately move for the declaration of the recount result, which showed that the opposition PPP/C did win the election.
That CCJ ruling, quite inevitably, was what made way for the GECOM Chair to immediately move for the declaration of the recount result, authenticating the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic’s (PPP/C’s) victory.
I mean, we all knew, but still had to endure what we did endure at the hands of APNU/AFC.
Here is another piece of bizarre behaviour to illustrate the stupid time-wasting tactics of what is ongoing. It goes back to, and maybe is, the genesis of all this silliness. I speak here of the NCM (No Confidence Motion) that was passed in December 2018. The natural course of the event should have been elections in a three-month time frame.
Initially, the APNU/AFC accepted defeat, and did acknowledge being toppled, and was left with a mandate of only three months in office. However, led by the said Nigel Hughes, who is the leading lawyer in the current trial, the motion was challenged, and all had to wait until June 2019 for the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) to throw out this clumsy government argument when it ruled that the No-Confidence Motion (NCM) on December 21, 2018 was indeed validly passed.
In handing down the CCJ decision, Justice Adrian Saunders said, “The Court found that 33, and not 34, as the Government and supporters have argued, was the majority the Opposition needed out of 65 Members of Parliament (MPs) to pass the motion.”
Hughes was foisting the idea of 34.
Editor, even so, elections were held in March 2020, and not as soon as possible after this June 2019 ruling. Overall, the APNU/AFC ruled illegally for at least a year.
The new nonsense now from Nigel Hughes is that the legal principle of de novo, or a fresh start, should be invoked. He contends that the case should proceed without being bound by previous decisions made by Magistrate Daly. However, on the Government’s side, this should not be. The end for now, until December 9, 2024, is that Magistrate McGusty would hear oral arguments on the issue of this “fresh start”, after which a date would be set for commencement of the trial.
How long must we tarry? How long can they hide? As a consideration, I urge the PPP/C to await the ultimate conclusion of this issue before announcing the date for the 2025 elections.
Guyana needs to ‘clean-up’ its political garbage. Too many smelly issues and people are in the biosphere of the land. Currently, Guyana has quite a dung heap to deal with: District Four (Demerara-Mahaica) Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo; former Health Minister under the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) government, Volda Lawrence; PNC/R activist Carol Smith-Joseph; former Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield; former Deputy Chief Elections Officer Roxanne Myers; and GECOM employees Sheffern February, Enrique Livan, Denise Babb-Cummings, and Michelle Miller. Together, they are facing 19 conspiracy charges related to alleged electoral fraud. All defendants have denied the charges and are currently out on bail.
Yours truly,
Hargesh B Singh