Tales of the 2020 General and Region Elections

Dear Editor,
I commend Vishnu Bisram for having reminded us of what he described as “the drama behind the 2020 election result” in a letter to SN on August 15.
In his letter, he makes the point that “there were several untold events and unsung heroes behind those happenings”, and he proceeds to name some of them, including the several court cases and the intervention in one way or another of the diplomatic community: US, UK, EU and Canada in particular, and most especially former US Ambassador to Guyana, Sarah Ann Lynch, in the part they played in preventing former President David Granger from being sworn into office based on a totally fraudulent declaration orchestrated by Lowenfield, Mingo and Myers.
We should also never forget, and specifically remember and recognize, the huge role the Private Sector Commission played in ultimately ensuring the David Granger government was not returned to Government on a rigged election result.
Before the elections, the Private Sector Commission under the Chairmanship of Captain Gerry Gouveia had established within its offices a Command Centre managed by Brigadier General (retired) Norman McLean, a former PSC Chairman, with the specific purpose of observing and monitoring the 2020 Elections.
The Private Sector Commission had also met with Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission, and had been accredited full observer status for the forthcoming General and Regional Elections.
On election day and the days that followed, the Commission had accredited observers strategically placed around the country and in polling places where the count was being compiled. I was one of those accredited observers. We know that in every district except District 4, at the end of election day, the count had been tabulated and posted, and Statements of Poll were in the possession of all of the contesting political parties.
I was the accredited observer for the PSC at the District 4 GECOM Building at Ashmin’s, where Clairmont Mingo first attempted to present a tabulation of numbers that did not accord with the Statements of Poll from the District 4 polling places, which had already been published and were in the possession of the contesting political parties and the various election observer missions from the diplomatic community.
I witnessed Mingo’s blatant attempt to cheat the results, and I returned immediately to the Private Sector Commission, reported what I had witnessed to Captain Gouveia, and we decided to immediately call a press conference on the matter, wherein I reported what I had seen.
It was therefore the Private Sector Commission which, at that press conference, first disclosed to the public that an attempt was in process by the APNU/AFC appointed members of GECOM to falsify the election results.
At the time I was astonished at what I had witnessed, and at the press conference I said, “I have to say this: in all my life and career in and out of politics in this country, I have never seen such a barefaced, ugly, and deliberate attempt to rig an election.”
The next day, March 14 2020, Kaiteur News reported what I had said at the press conference as “a deliberate attempt to rig an election”.
I was convinced then, and events have proved me to be accurate, that the APNU/AFC Coalition had already in their possession the Statements of Poll of all ten election districts, and already knew the results of the election. They knew they had lost to the PPP/C, and were now attempting to reverse the results.
It is now history that, after a long and painful series of court cases; high-level foreign diplomatic intervention, including from Caricom; and the continuing persistence of the Private Sector Commission’s Observer Mission, a decision made to recount the election results established that the Peoples Progressive Party Civic had won the election, and Mohammed Irfaan Ali was sworn in as President on August 2, 2020.
I had, during this period, decided to write a series of letters and make several broadcast commentaries exposing the degree of the conspiracy that was taking place within GECOM by its officials. In those commentaries, I said the following:
*Granger has refused to recognize the fraud committed by Mingo, as the immediate beneficiary of that fraud.
*Granger has refused to recognize that the recount of the ballots currently taking place must deliver the results of the elections
* Granger has refused to recognize the credibility of the election process on election day, which was recognized by all of the observers and signed on to by all of the APNU/AFC party agents
*Granger has refused to recognize that the declaration by Lowenfield, based on the tabulation of Mingo, is fraudulent and must be rejected
*Granger has refused to recognize the evidence of the Statements of Poll in his party’s possession, which were publicly displayed on election day for the world to see as irrefutable evidence that the PPP/C has won the elections by a substantial majority.
Ultimately, we all know it required the Chairperson of GECOM, Justice Claudette Singh, to make the casting vote for the majority in favour of the elections recount being accepted by GECOM with all of the APNU/AFC-appointed GECOM members voting against it.
To his credit, President David Granger at the time had said, “Whatever declaration is made by the Chairman of the Elections Commission would be regarded as legitimate by the Coalition Government”.
But earlier, Basil Williams and Roysdale Forde had publicly pronounced that the Recount is illegal. Again, when asked about this, David Granger emphatically declared: “As President of Guyana and Leader of the Government, it is my policy that any declaration coming from the Chairman of GECOM will be accepted by the Government of Guyana”.
So said, so done.

Sincerely,
Christopher Nascimento