US Congress stopped rigging of Guyana’s 1992 elections and can stop it again

Dear Editor,
The period in Guyana’s history between 1968 to 1992 is notorious for the election scams that took place under the People’s National Congress (PNC), now morphed into A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and joined with its underlings, the now insignificant Alliance for Change (AFC).
In those dark days, after polling was completed, the ballot boxes were taken from the Polling Stations by the police and army to a central place in the capital, Georgetown, where the integrity of the boxes was violated: the seals were broken, the ballot boxes were tampered with and stuffed with fake ballots. On occasion, when the boxes were opened, they were found to contain wads of ballots wrapped with rubber bands! The rigging had no bounds.
In the 1973 General Elections, the Opposition People’s Progressive Party, in the interest of transparency, demanded the vote be counted at the place of poll. It summoned its supporters to surround the Polling Stations to prevent the ballots from being removed without first being counted. But this was a futile attempt to stop the authorities from removing the ballot boxes. At one of the Polling Stations at No 63 on the Corentyne, Berbice, the police opened fire and killed two PPP supporters – Bholanauth Parmanand and Jagan Ramessar, who later became known as the Ballot Box Martyrs.
With the thaw in East-West relations in the latter part of the eighties, the Americans could no longer stomach the blatant election fraud that was perpetrated for over two decades on the Guyanese people. On July 27, 1990, members of the US Congress wrote to the US Secretary of State, the Rt Hon James Baker, expressing concerns about the upcoming elections in 1992 and recommended that any aid to Guyana must be withheld unless there is free and fair elections. In particular, they said: “votes should be counted at each Polling Station by civilian election officials under the scrutiny of poll watchers from all political parties and international observers.”
The letter also went on to say “the invitation of credible, independent international observers is the single most important step Guyana can take to demonstrate that it intends to hold free and fair elections”.
These two powerful statements, issued by the US Congress, are applicable to Guyana today as they were in 1992. The US stopped the PNC from rigging the 1992 Guyana elections and can stop them rigging the 2020 elections. Like in 1992, when the US threatened the withdrawal of aid to Guyana, the US has now threatened that there will be consequences if elections are not free in 2020.
Only a few days ago the United States Ambassador to Guyana, Sarah-Ann Lynch, said the US stands by its words when it comes to threats of sanctions. The rigging cabal within the APNU/AFC and its functionaries must take note of this powerful statement.
The observers must be allowed to return to Guyana to observe the recount process. Justice Claudette Singh should demand that Granger remove the barriers preventing the arrival of all foreign observers for the recount and ensure the recount reflects the Statements of Poll. No amount of rigging of the recount will change the results. The PPP/C have won the elections.

Sincerely,
Harry Krishna Beharry
London, UK