The very ones who tried to manipulate the results of the March 2020 elections are now trying to stop any reform that makes rigging of a Guyanese election more difficult. They are trying their best to block any reforms that would create more transparency and accountability. Just like David Granger blocked the Carter Center and other legitimate observers from observing the recount last year, he now wants to block the CCJ from any Guyana elections’ matter. His handpicked Leader of the Opposition and his party and the APNU/AFC coalition have also objected to the IRI being engaged in the process leading to electoral reforms. Those who have been guilty of rigging elections in Guyana are desperate to stop any reform that would make it impossible for them to manipulate elections.
It cannot shock anyone that there are people in Guyana who would oppose the International Republican Institute’s project to work with GECOM to ensure the electoral platform is made stronger and reduce any attempt from within and from outside of GECOM to manipulate the process and the results of elections in Guyana. Such initiatives should invoke unanimous support, not provoke rejection. The IRI’s involvement should not, and cannot, prevent other initiatives. In fact, the more the better. GECOM and Guyana are not investing any money in the IRI’s initiative. The IRI initiative does not prevent the EU, Caricom, the Carter Center, the UN, or other legitimate interlocutors from becoming involved in strengthening the electoral system of Guyana. The IRI played a role in the restoration of democracy in Guyana in 1992, as part of the Carter Center’s efforts to create a level playing field in Guyanese elections. They continued to play significant roles in the Guyanese electoral system and process. In 2011 and 2015, they were important players in the “Vote like a Boss” elections. The IRI campaign then clearly was helpful to bring out young voters that favoured the PNC. What has changed to make IRI an enemy? It is simple – the same people who continue to carry the stamp of election riggers like an albatross around their necks for decades in Guyana, the same ones who tried desperately to rig the March 2020 elections, have nightmares that the electoral system can be made foolproof against rigging.
These same riggers also do not want any involvement of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). Clearly, the riggers are becoming desperate. They see a groundswell in activities that aim to reduce the opportunities for skulduggery; they see a movement towards making the electoral system less susceptible to manipulation from within and outside of GECOM. The riggers know that the only ones who benefit from a weak system, from a system that provides opportunities for rigging and manipulation, are those in the PNC and political stakeholders who are beholden to the PNC.
So, if there is anyone who is flabbergasted that the PNC – including their beholders like the AFC, the WPA (with barely a handful of followers now), and the various one-man political parties the likes of Lincoln Lewis, who is desperately seeking relevance, the ones who for five years were missing in action (MIA) and who were somewhere in the wilderness or on Mars, such as the Guyana Human Rights Association, ACDA and Red Thread – is against the IRI helping to create a rig-proof election process, do not waste your time. These riggers see this as personal assault on their “right to rig” elections. The PPP want to govern, but they are deep into the values of democracy; they have been victims multiple times of rigged elections.
Thank God that Guyana has a judicial system that permits appeals, and that the appeals can be taken all the way to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). For more than two decades, during the People’s National Congress dictatorship, appeals could not be made outside of Guyana. The Burnham dictatorship had ended all appeals to the Privy Courts of the UK, a mechanism that still exists for most Caribbean countries. Thank God Bharrat Jagdeo and the PPP saw the wisdom that appeals cannot be limited to only the Guyanese courts. Had it not been for the CCJ, Guyana would still be under the tight control of another dictator, David Granger.
In 2015, APNU/AFC attained power in elections which many suspected were subjected to manipulations of the Region 4 results. The PPP pointed out that the declared results for some polling stations did not match the certified Statements of Poll, but the PPP accepted the declarations made by GECOM. In keeping with election laws and the constitution, the PPP challenged the results through an election petition. It is now six years since that petition was made. The petition is still languishing somewhere in the judicial system. It was never heard, because everyone knows that the declared results for Region 4 would have been seen to be different from the signed SOPs for several polling stations in that region. The reforms are intended to remove such skulduggery.
