“You can fool Lindeners sometimes, but you can’t fool them all the time”

Dear Editor,
On Tuesday June 09, 2020, the PNCR faction of the APNU-AFC mustered a team and travelled to Linden to meet with their executive members and supporters to do damage control.
They then engaging in radio and television programmes which were riddled with falsehoods and exaggerations – obvious deceptions of the sort that clearly warn careful listeners of this obvious truth: they were listening to liars.
The APNU-AFC leaders lie cleverly by taking things out of context, or using phony comparisons. Sometimes they only exaggerate, which is a common flaw of politicians; but they do it more often, more blatantly, and more shamelessly than most.
Using Linden to spread the race card will not materialise. Lindeners: we are considered by every Guyanese as smart and educated people in this region, and you would have seen the truth unveiled at the end of the recount process by Chris Jones and Sherod Duncan.
Fact#1: Lindeners, the tabulation of Statements of Poll (SOPs) was interrupted in District Four (Demerara-Mahaica) after Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo switched from the legal procedure, which ensures transparency. Each SOP had to be exhibited to stakeholders present to enable comparison with their copies. However, Mingo diverted to a procedure in which the purported numbers from the SOPs were incorporated into a consolidated spreadsheet, which led to immediate calls for transparency from both local and international observers.
Mingo had fraudulently inflated the number of votes for the Coalition during the tabulation, but this was exposed by stakeholders who were in possession of the Statements of Poll (SOPs) from the 897 polling stations in the district.
The APNU-AFC has refused to release its SOPs, which it claims are proof of its victory, while the copies of the SOPs released by the PPP show that party comfortably winning the elections by more than 15,000 votes.
The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has also refused to release its SOPs, despite doing so in the past.
Fact#2: Lindeners, after recourse to the High Court, when all the parties except APNU/AFC protested the sleight of hand that facilitated inflation of the votes for that party, following a High Court decision, Mingo was ordered to revert to the prescribed procedure, but he submitted totals that varied substantially from those of other parties, and had the APNU/AFC ahead, rather than the PPPC.
Contempt of court proceedings against Mingo will be held on Thursday June 11, 2020, over his failure to comply with several court orders issued by Justice George in relation to the counting and tabulation of votes for district #4, the largest electoral district.
Fact#3: Retired Justice Claudette Singh, Chairwoman of GECOM, agreed to a recount of all the votes, which had been proposed by caretaker President David Granger and agreed to by Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo after an intervention by several Caricom leaders. Since then, both leaders have recommitted to accepting the results of the recount.
Fact#4: Lindeners, the OLE is quite large when compared to the actual size of the country’s population. They were built in with several built-in safeguards, such as indelible ink on voters’ index fingers, and the deployment of political party representatives at polling stations in our country’s electoral system; it was almost impossible for people to cheat.
There is no necessary relationship between a bloated list and APNU assuming that all the people who were dead voted. PNC/R had scrutineers in every electoral office. Those scrutineers would have familiarised themselves with the neighbourhood and the district. The fact that APNU+AFC personnel turned up suddenly with death certificates after the elections, the question now lingers: Why did they not use that information to query people’s legitimacy?
Fast#5: Lindeners, 460,352 valid votes were cast in the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections out of 661,378 registered voters and a total estimated population of 750,000 persons. At the 2015 polls, 411,970 valid votes were cast from a register of 583,444 persons and a total population of 750,000 persons. Guyana has a very “itinerant” population, and there was no way of removing people who have died overseas.
Fact#6: The Constitution of Guyana, this is, Art 177 (2) (b), states: “Where there are two or more Presidential candidates, if more votes are cast in favour of the list in which a person is designated as Presidential candidate than in favour of another list, that Presidential candidate shall be deemed to be elected President and shall be so declared by the Chairman of the Elections Commission…”
The recounted and tabulated results show that the PPP/C won 233,336 votes, and APNU+AFC 217,920 votes, and three small political parties – A New and United Guyana, Liberty and Justice Party, and The New Movement – that contested the polls separately won a total of 5,190 votes, which entitle them to one seat in the 65-seat National Assembly.
Fact#7: GECOM is yet to officially declare the results, but the Organisation of American States (OAS), which include the 14 Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states, has already said the recount results could be used to declare a credible result and install a government on the basis of the will of the people.
It was the APNU-AFC caretaker Government that said the CARICOM election scrutineers’ report would be among those to be considered by GECOM before it declares the results. However, it was the same APNU-AFC coalition candidate and former Member of Parliament (MP), James Bond, who accused APNU+AFC agents of a “criminal collusion”.
He said, “Those agents, so-called agents, that persons are saying belong to APNU+AFC who were in those places when these things happened”, shame on you. If you were there at all, shame on you. Shame on you.”
The untruths from the PNCR-APNU-AFC leaders cause me to get both philosophical and nostalgic for a moment, when listening to them trying to convince the people of Linden and Region #10. My message to the APNU-AFC leaders is: “You can fool the Lindeners sometimes, but you cannot fool them all the time.” This is one time “Lindeners are fed up with your falsehood”, and will do the right thing for our community.
The voices from the domestic and international communities – local Church leaders; the Private Sector Commission; the US State Department; Ambassadors of the US, EU, UK, Caricom and OAS, have been calling for an acceptance of the recount by all the parties, leading to a peaceful transition for the new government that has been chosen by the people of Guyana.
I can also tell you that the power of the objectivity paradigm ensured that pretty much every statement asserted must be based on a verifiable fact. What we heard from the APNU-AFC representatives on radio and television were far from verifiable facts.
Lindeners, you need accurate and honest information from your APNU-AFC leaders. It is you, the people, who decide for yourselves which side you find more trustworthy or persuasive.
There’s a part of human nature that, rather than wanting to know what’s accurate and true, wants to believe certain things, whether true or not. I’m not one who thinks David Granger is a genius, but if he is a genius, his genius is rooted in his understanding of the truth. It’s not that PNCR are clever about it, they blatantly lie all the time. In the age of fact-checkers, their lives are easily and quickly identified and publicised. But this easy access to a catalogue of their lies has no apparent influence on the bond between the PNCR and the roughly 40 percent of the electorate that supports them, or at least “approves” of them, as measured by approval polls.
I assume, and more than assume, that some portion of this 40 percent knows that the PNCR leaders lied a lot, and wishes they would lie less, but doesn’t disapprove of that aspect of their leadership as much as they approve of some of their failed policies. I don’t know, and probably can’t know, how many of their supporters viewed it that way. I try to respect their beliefs, which differ from mine on many of these electoral issues and policy issues.
But maybe it’s because I’m an ‘old school’ person who was indoctrinated in the importance of factual accuracy – it’s hard for me to understand a willingness to excuse such lying. Still, they are free to make that choice.
The APNU-AFC is trying to create an ethnic contest. The racial division tune by the PNCR leadership is dangerous and deceptive in Linden. Conveniently, this is once again distracting the people of Linden from the prize ahead.
I worry more about those, presumably most of their supporters, who cannot bring themselves to acknowledge the lying. It’s frightening. It’s cultish.
And I assume that many, or most, members of that cult don’t read what is written in the news media. How can the APNU-AFC on national television claim to the people of Linden that they have won these elections? Lindeners, you are too intelligent and smart to allow these PNCR Leaders to pull you by a “nose ring” and continue to deceive the people of Linden and Region #10.
If you doubt the level of the PNCR mendacity as I’ve described, you must refer to our media houses for the fact checks on the various falsehoods you heard.
Lindeners, I encourage you all to align yourselves with a People’s Progressive Party/Civic comprehensive full range of policies and programmes. We all need a society which is free, prosperous, socially just, globally competitive, and which serves every Guyanese equitably.
Every Guyanese must have an opportunity for a good education, access to good paying jobs, be able to start their own business, raise and provide for your family, own your own homes, live in a safe and secure environment, and retire with dignity.
Every Guyanese must have full access to quality healthcare, safe water, be able to participate in sports and recreation, and freely practise their religion and culture. We believe our hard work and sacrifice, bolstered by an economy strengthened by an oil and gas sector, must guarantee the next generation of Guyanese a brighter and brighter future.

Sincerely
David Adams