“Something is fishy”, the recount is taking too long

Dear Editor,
With all that took place over the last week, the 2020 General and Regional Elections will be hard-fought and divisive. The COVID-19 pandemic has already caused major disruptions to our elections system, with the risk that other real elements will further disrupt the elections significantly, but there is also a significant risk that the APNU/AFC caretaker Government will manufacture crises to undermine election results they don’t like. These fake crises can undercut trust in the accuracy of election outcomes, inflame partisan tensions, and destabilise our democracy. The lies, misconceptions, and false arguments that are being peddled by the APNU/AFC that our voters have to contend with during these elections are unacceptable efforts to manipulate our military forces by allegedly claiming that their votes were compromised. This is irresponsible and spurious and has no merit. The Disciplined Services turned out in their numbers on February 21, 2020, to cast their ballots as a part of their constitutional right. From all reports, 82 per cent turned out, which amounted to a total of 8369 votes from a list totalling 10,226 eligible voters. It was considered by all as problem-free voting by the Disciplined Services. It was public knowledge that the Disciplined Services’ ballots were going to be stamped on election Day, March 2, 2020. The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) in a media release stated that the ballot papers issued to members of the Disciplined Services would not be stamped with the official six-digit stamp when they are given to ranks for them to vote, instead, stamping of those ballots would be done on Election Day, March 2, 2020 – when they are sent to be intermixed and counted at Polling Stations where it will be Gazetted, as is required by law.
GECOM in a statement said “GECOM takes this opportunity to guarantee that the votes cast by all members of the Disciplined Services will be counted on Election Day, March 2, 2020. The entire process ie voting, sorting and intermixing relative to voting by members of the Disciplined Forces are being observed by agents of the political parties and local and international observers”.
It is clear to all that GECOM is the governing body at all the Polling Stations across the length and breadth of Guyana. It is the responsibility of the (PO) Presiding Officers at the Polling Stations to ensure that those ballots were stamped with the official six-digit stamp, using the numbers that was created through the participation of all the political parties present that the Polling Station on March 2, 2020.
The APNU/AFC agents at the stations continue to make ridiculous objections, allegedly selecting random serial numbers to object to. APNU/AFC leadership is not to be trusted, they are on a “stories” path and are throwing allegations after allegations which has now been established to be true. I can assure you, Dear Editor, that the media have looked into several of the these allegations and have proven them to be all to be lies (false). The clear intent here by the APNU/AFC is to frustrate the recount process, delay the recount and create opportunities to have their two stronghold areas, District Four and District 10, counted simultaneously to cause confusion, mischief and corruption during the final days of the recount, energising APNU/AFC’s two bases with mudslinging, registering more allegations, dirty tricks and falsehood in an effort to undermine the final efforts of the recount. “Something is fishy,” the recount is taking too long, with the exclusion of The Carter Center from the National Recount of the ballots “one must wonder what is the real motive for rejecting The Carter Center and when will the true answer surface itself?”
GECOM Chair, Retired Justice Claudette Singh must act responsibly and establish command over GECOM’s looseness. It’s the GECOM Chair’s own words that said: “he who asserts must prove”. In another twist of events, allegations are surfacing that GECOM is writing the Chief Immigration Officer to verify whether migrants who are alleged to have voted, were out of Guyana on Election Day. This is a shocking turn in the narrative being played out, why would GECOM attempt to undertake such a task when it is the APNU/AFC that has that burden of proof to do so? It seems that GECOM thinks its sole obligation is to the APNU/AFC Administration. Chair, Justice Claudette Singh, the People’s Progressive Party Executive, Mr Anil Nandlall made clear that even the NGSA student can understand that any challenge to the validity of the elections, whether through fraud or administrative incompetence, should be the subject of an elections petition in the court.
These false claims also undermine trust in the integrity of our elections process, and they are particularly inflammatory because of their intersection with race and immigration.
It is my belief that the Guyana Elections Commission and the David Granger-led APNU/AFC caretaker Government must be concerned about Mingo’s barefaced methods of rigging Guyana’s General and Regional Elections of March 2020 in front of Guyanese and the international community.

Sincerely,
David Adams