“We have descended to the lowest low” – URP to APNU/AFC

The United Republican Party (URP), one of the smaller parties that contested the General and Regional Elections over three months ago, has urged President David Granger to concede defeat and let the country move on.
URP’s Presidential Candidate, Dr Vishnu Bandhu made this call in a statement on Saturday. According to Bandhu, it is long past time that the elections should have concluded. He questioned what it would take for Guyana to redeem itself on the world stage.
“The Head of Missions of the United States of America, Sarah-Ann Lynch; the British High Commission, Greg Quinn; the Canadian High Commission, Lilian Chatterjee, the delegation of the European Union, Fernando Ponz-Canto, the OAS (Organisation of American States) and (others) have expressed deep concern over allegations of electoral fraud.”
“We have also heard from the sitting Chair of Caricom who said the Caribbean Community (Caricom) is concerned at reports that the Chief Elections Officer has submitted a report to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) which is contrary to the results of the recount and does not reflect the will of the electorate.”
According to him, it is time for right-thinking Guyanese to make their voices heard and make it clear to the APNU/AFC party that they want “true democracy”, not the one being foisted on them by rogue elements in GECOM.
“The electorate of Guyana went to the poll on March 2, 2020, and voted for their party of choice in the General and Regional Elections. After more than 100 days elapsing which included legal battles, a recount of ballots, injunctions, the frustration of the Guyanese electorate, and most worrying, the degeneration of the racial and social fabric of our country which has done nothing else than to divide our people more.”
He added that Guyana has descended to “the lowest low in the political spectrum to our Caribbean brothers and to the world, we are seen as a nation incompetent of making our own decisions. I am calling on all responsible for this current crisis, to do the sensible and right thing in this situation and let our country move forward.”
Elections were held since March 2, 2020, but a winner is yet to be declared. After controversy erupted when the Region Four Returning Officer twice subverted the process and declared fraudulent numbers, a recount was done that showed that the PPP/C won the elections by 15,416 votes.
But in a report done by Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield, it was claimed that the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) coalition garnered 171,825 votes while the PPP/C gained 166,343 votes.
How the CEO arrived at those figures is unknown, since the certified results from the legally conducted recount exercise supervised by GECOM and a high-level team from the Caribbean Community (Caricom) pellucidly show that the PPP/C won with 233,336 votes while the APNU/AFC garnered 217,920.
It was only recently that coalition partner Justice For All Party (JFAP) founder CN Sharma, broke away from APNU/AFC’s dogged refusal to accept defeat in the March 2 polls. In a statement, he made it clear that enough was enough and it was time for the country to move on.
He had chastised those bent on dragging out the process and extended congratulations to PPP/C on their win. Sharma had pointed out that the National Recount was carried out and from the votes counted, it is clear the PPP/C is the winner.
Granger’s own son-in-law, former Business Minister Dominic Gaskin, also made a statement on the same day as Sharma, in which he conceded that APNU/AFC lost to the PPP/C and called out his party’s leadership for fooling supporters.
And incumbent Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan was caught on a recording, conceding defeat to his Ministry staff, during a farewell speech he had given. In that speech, Ramjattan had acknowledged the PPP winning by some 15,000 votes and had told the gathering he was willing to move on.