We must return to the ballot boxes

Dear Editor,
It is almost three weeks since General Elections were held in Guyana and to date, GECOM has not declared a winner. Reason being, the winner of the election, that is, the PPP/C is not the “choice” party of the partisan Elections Commission; it is as simple as that. So, what we have here is a long convoluted legal battle to try every which way to “legitimise” their (GECOM’s) manufactured winner. This is the position of the election saga in a place called Guyana.
So, how did he get here and the answer is simply this, we had an election in which everyone exercised his/her franchise to the best way we know how. At the end of that process, a winner was determined on the basis of the tallying up of the Statements of Poll (SoPs) from each polling place. This is standard procedure in any election, where the counting of and tallying up of the votes is done at the place of poll and the SoP posted in a conspicuous place outside of that Polling Station.
Now, this was done according to law and a winner was determined beyond the shadow of a doubt, that winner being the PPP/C. But like I said earlier, GECOM, which is supposed to be an independent body, had other plans, they were hell-bent on positioning their choice as winner. This was done in the most lowdown, barefaced and classless way before the eyes of an international audience, where an Election Commission tried to bully its way into administering of a falsified spreadsheet instead of the legally binding SoP.
That fraudulent move was stopped in the nick of time by the alert and quick action of The Opposition.  In her ruling Chief Justice Roxane George then ordered GECOM to pay strict regard to (Section 84 (1) of the Representation of the People Act) and get back into the legal stream of things. Now. one would have thought that this would be the standard of their operations, however, that was not to be because the Returning Officer for Region Four, Clairmont Mingo continued along the illegal path of instituting fake figures; something no one with even half a brain would accept.
With no resolution in sight, the process was halted a second time, only this time with newer developments and these are:
1. President Granger summoned the aid of the regional body Caricom to supervise the recounting of votes in the disputed regional boxes of Region Four.
2. This was followed up by an aide-memoire by Granger and Opposition Leader Jagdeo, on a recount of the ballots for Region Four and bring an end to this impasse.
3. 3. In a strange twist to an already agreed upon legal process, The PNC/AFC then served an injunction on GECOM to halt a recount and here we are today.
What is obviously clear is that the incumbent is fearful of the unequivocal results of a recount. They are mortally petrified at the thought of witnessing a clear winner of an election with a conclusive result. The only way to get to that place is in a return to the ballot boxes, a recount vote by vote.
In closing, the PNC/AFC must face up to the fact that the people of Guyana have spoken and that is paramount. The people’s voice must be respected, the will of The people must be honoured.

Respectfully
submitted,
Neil   Adams