Dear Editor,
Election observers are valuable persons for improving the quality of elections. Observers help build public confidence for the honesty of the electoral processes. Observation can help promote and protect the civil and political rights of participants in elections. It can lead to the correction of errors or weak practices, even while an election process is still underway.
It can deter manipulation and fraud, or expose such problems if they do occur. When observers can issue positive reports, it builds trust in the democratic process and enhances the legitimacy of the governments that emerge from elections. Election observation by domestic groups encourages civic involvement in the political process. Following elections, reports and recommendations by observer groups can lead to changes and improvements in national law and practice.
These are the many reasons why the Guyana caretaker Administration doesn’t want The Carter Center and many international observers back in Guyana to observe the recount of the March 2, 2020 General Election.
Any election can be enhanced by observation, but comprehensive observation is particularly helpful in Guyana in which a significant proportion of the population lack trust in the electoral system. It must be noted that in the 1980 elections, the observers were abused and harassed by the PNC, they were not given access to vital information and notes, films and tapes were confiscated – Lord Avebury was even arrested
December 15, 1980 will remain as one of the blackest days experienced by Guyanese people. it was on this day the regime of People’s National Congress (PNC) aided by the military forces, concluded its hat trick of crudely rigged elections, thus maintaining itself in power against the wish of the overwhelming majority of the people of Guyana. The fraudulent 1980 elections came after the PNC prepared and introduced a constitutional machinery which rapidly eroded the democratic rights of the people of Guyana.
We would all remember that in 1992, it was because of the presence of The Carter Center in Guyana that “the will of the people” had prevailed for the first time after decades of rigging by the PNC regime. Free and fair elections were experienced in Guyana, democracy was restored in Guyana.
After the 2015 General Election which was stolen by the APNU/AFC, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic, leaders and supporters realised what was on the APNU/AFC’s agenda and immediately accused the APNU/AFC Government of plotting to rig the 2020 General Elections and those concerns had burst into the open with President David Granger’s decision to unilaterally name 84-year-old Retired Justice James Patterson as the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission.
Aside from the Opposition PPP/C, condemnation of Granger’s decision was shared by civil society and several other agencies. The PNC’s history of rigging elections has been cited or referred to obliquely.
History would have shown us that PNC rigging began in 1953. Between 1962-1964 there were successive states of emergency, which laid the basis for change in the electoral system from the first past the post to proportional representation.
In the 1973 General Elections, the army played a major role in the rigging machinery – seizing ballot boxes, taking them to Camp Ayangana for some fifteen hours, votes were switched in favour of the PNC. In 1977 the PPP won the election but was cheated out of it.
PNC in 1978 rigged the referendum for a new Constitution.
It is clear to all that the APNU/AFC is back to the old playbook of the PNC regime. All indications at the recount stations show clearly the APNU/AFC agents are there to derail the recount process with their main focus being scrutinising the paper works prepared and signed by the PO on March 2. They are there making ridiculous assertions, they continue to peddle lies, spreading misinformation and claiming that dead persons had voted. What Guyanese must know about voting on Election Day is that there is a document called a “folio” which has a picture of all the persons registered to vote at that Polling Station.
That picture of the person in the folio is the same picture which appears on the person’s ID card. All the persons manning the Polling Station on Election Day which includes all representatives of the political parties, called “polling agents”, have a copy of that folio for them to ascertain that the person about to vote matches the picture on the ID card and the folio. The claim that dead persons or migrated persons voted is simply absurd because it means that every single person in that Polling Station including the respective party representatives (polling agents) would have had to act in a grand conspiracy to allow a person who does not match the picture on the ID card and the folio to vote.
The APNU/AFC’s sinister plot to remove MR Jonas from the recount by claiming he has COVID-19 is another way to remove an observer whose eyes are keen, watchful and one who will speak out at any cause if he observes any wrongdoing, similar to the observers from the Carter mission.
The ANPU/AFC is using the same hat of tricks from PNC in the 70s and 80s, however, it will not work in 2020.
The recount figures from the national vote recount have so far shown, and will continue throughout the District Four recount, that the votes for APNU/AFC were heavily inflated when the first and second vote declarations were made by Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo on March 6 and 13 after the elections held on March 2.
All Guyanese deserve better and should demand nothing less than the truth – transparency is what we need at every counting station. I am aware that GECOM will be pushing to have all phones removed during the counting process. Your phone is another pair of eyes – one must have his or her phone. Our phones help to enrich the highest standard for all Guyanese. The phone always tells and reveals the truth – a picture tells a thousand words.
So, stop trying to derail the counting process and let’s stick to what every Guyanese citizen and the world at large requires – the vote to be recounted in a timely manner of 25 days
Sincerely,
David Adams
