…and confusion
Some are incredulously trying to grapple with what’s going on before their eyes at the Region’s GECOM RO’s office. They throw up their hands in despair since to reasonable folks, it just doesn’t “make sense”. Practically the entire world has demanded that GECOM complies with a law that’s been applied in five elections since 1992 …but yet, on the kindest reading, can’t get it right. Boggles the mind, right?
So let’s cut to the chase cause it’s not difficult to understand. In every election since ’92 – because of the PNC’s sordid history of rigging elections – there’s “counting at the place of poll”. The representatives of all the parties tally the ballots cast “one by one” for each party and their totals are inserted on a “Statement of Poll” (SoP) which they sign, along with the Presiding Officer. They’re then sent to a Returning Officer (RO) for each of the ten regions to be tallied. No problem so far, right?? Well for the entire country, in practice, there really WAS no problem to this point.
For 9 regions, there was no problem with the tallying of the SoPs. Those ROs tallied the SoPs like in past elections: in front of the stakeholders detailed in the law. So why not in Reg 4? You have to “pick sense from nonsense”, Dear Reader! It’s simple really. All this “jimmy-cock-and-ram-goat” story about “spreadsheets” versus separate SoPs didn’t really matter: in the 9 regions, the stakeholders were allowed to witness and approve what went into the spreadsheets!!
And this is the crux of the Reg 4 imbroglio that involved more twists than an Agatha Christie’s mystery and enough red herrings to trip up even the most intrepid elections observer: Clerks getting tired, RO ambulanced to GPHC’s cardiology department, unsupervised clerks “tallying into spreadsheets” on their lonesome, flash drives disappearing, miraculous recovery by RO, a cuss down between the PNC reps and the other stakeholders, injunctions served, GECOM Chair disappearing, Court hearing, Orders issued, orders disobeyed – but still no completing counting 879 SoPs!! The rest of the country had some 1500 counted with nary a hitch!!
It’s not that Reg 4’s SoPs are different – maybe MORE, but not DIFFERENT; it’s not that the Observers are different – maybe MORE but not DIFFERENT. So what’s the variable, as Miss Marple might ask?? If you look at all the factors above, you’ll see the common thread’s the GECOM staff – from the RO down to some specific clerks and supervisors. At every turn, they’ve thrown a spanner into the works to ensure there’s no count!!
As Conan Doyle advised, “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth”.
The Reg 4 staff dunnit!!
…as intellectual author
Now you know when a crime’s committed Miss Marple looks into the means, motive and opportunity. In the “Case of the Sequestered SoPs”, we know the GECOM staff had means and opportunity – but what’s about motive?? And now we get to the real “intellectual authors” of the tragedy-as-farce that’s playing out!! Who benefits from the manipulation of the Reg 4 numbers?? The PNC, you say, Dear Reader?? Go to the head of the class!! They get another five years!!
They insisted during the NCM and their elections campaign that they WOULDN’T ALLOW THE PPP BACK INTO OFFICE!! Did you get that?? WOULDN’T ALLOW!! Not that they COULDN’T allow, but WOULDN’T allow!! For them to assert this, they had the wherewithal to ENSURE the PPP doesn’t get back in through the ballot boxes. And once again we should appreciate why Granger expended so much capital to control GECOM.
Not only the Chair. Do you remember how Granger’s Patterson nixed Vishnu Persaud as the Dep CEO for Roxanne Myers?
She proved her worth on Declaration Day!!
…and power
The PNC’s conception of power is shaped by Burnham’s Machiavellian grounding. Simply put, once you control the means to impose your will, THAT’s power. Forget legitimacy!
And other states will go along, once you don’t threaten their interests.
