4
guyanatimesgy.com
FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 2020
Views Editor: Tusika Martin News Hotline: 231-8063 Editorial: 231-0544, 223-7230, 223-7231, 225-7761 Marketing: 231-8064 Accounts: 225-6707 Mailing address: Queens Atlantic Investment Estate Industrial Site, Ruimveldt, Georgetown Email: news@guyanatimesgy.com, marketing@guyanatimesgy.com
Reprehensible behaviour by APNU/AFC
T
he current political travesty that has been taking place in Guyana has been described by Chair of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) and Prime Minister of Barbados as “bizarre”. But here in Guyana, the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change has not seen their action to steal an election as unusual or weird in any way. Rather, they are acting as though it is their democratic right to derail and discard the will of the Guyanese people. Unfortunately, this dictatorship is being aided by none other than persons right within the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). The most recent attempt was by Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield to magically discard over 115,000 votes at his own whim and fantasy under the disguised pretext that he was being guided by the recent ruling of the Court of Appeal. These ‘new’ figures, which he claims are “valid and credible votes”, reflect the invalidation of almost 25 per cent of the votes cast at the General and Regional Elections. What is more tragic is the David Granger- led administration is pretending to be unaware of this deceit and is claiming victory on known fraudulent and fictitious figures. Members of that administration have since launched an attack on not only Mottley, who questioned on what executive fiat Lowenfield can invalidate already certified votes, but accused the wider international community of interfering in Guyana’s internal affairs. This repeated accusation now comes from caretaker Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, who once fought against dictatorship in Guyana, but now seeks to materially benefit from it. Nagamootoo accused the international community of using Guyana as a “pawn” in what he claimed is a “geo-strategic game that that they (international community) have mapped out in their own interest.” Nagamootoo’s comments come one day after the American, British, Canadian and European Union envoys issued a joint statement saying: “It is important, in our view, that every vote cast by every voter be reflected in that declaration, in order to ensure that the will of the people of Guyana is respected. That respect includes an election declaration of results that mirror the order and integrity displayed by the people of Guyana, GECOM and party officials, as witnessed by domestic and international observers during the 2 March General and Regional Elections.” As a matter of fact, the international community is only an inconvenience to the APNU/AFC regime when calls are made for democratic principles to be respected. In April, United States Ambassador to Guyana, SarahAnn Lynch, in an Op ed had said that a common criticism of diplomatic statements during politically charged election cycles is that they amount to foreign interference. To quote the ambassador, “…in foreign policy, the difference between meddling and practising good diplomacy is that the latter involves sticking to bedrock principles of human rights, good governance, and transparency and, whenever possible, underscoring the values that bind the country you represent to the country in which you serve.” It is unfortunate and reprehensible that the APNU/AFC is seeking to resort now to an outright attack on Caricom and the international community for their strong stance on democracy. If democracy were to fail in Guyana because of the malfeasances in Guyana, as Mottley rightly said, it will not bear consequences for this country only, but rather it would “put the Caribbean Region’s image on the questionable spectrum.” Rather than unjustifiably attacking our international partners, David Granger and his administration should stop the unprecedented level of gamesmanship, concede defeat, and respect the will of the Guyanese people. From the certified tabulation of elections recount figures, the will of the Guyanese people is clearly to eject APNU/AFC from the helm of Government.
Enough is enough: Caricom Leaders must tell Granger to go Dear Editor, Secretary-General of the Organisation of American States, Luis Almagro, has declared that “it is undeniable” that the dissonance over the March 2 general elections in Guyana “has gone on long enough”. Almagro is right. And undoubtedly, he speaks for the entire Caribbean and international community by expressing his exasperation with the process. Guyana has been known for election-rigging going back to the days of Forbes Burnham, the first leader of the Peoples National Congress (PNC), which is the main party in the APNU-AFC coalition that clearly lost the March 2 general elections, but which, in what has become almost a criminal enterprise, is overturning every pebble to maintain its grab on power. The name Clairmonte Mingo has already been carved in infamy in the history of Guyana. It is he who, like the comic strip figure of old, Mandrake the Magician, conjured figures on his sordid spread sheet to declare APNU-AFC the winner of Region 4 by numbers that allowed it to overtake the Peoples Progressive Party lead in 8 of the 10 voting districts. However much “Mandrake” Mingo may have gestured hypnotically, he failed miserably to hypnotise the regional and international Election Observer Missions into accepting his voodoo numbers. They all protested vigorously, including former Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur, who threw his observer badge to the ground
when the Minister of Foreign Affairs threatened to withdraw the accreditation of all the Observers if they did not kowtow to Mingo’s attempted fraud. Enter at this point five Caricom Prime Ministers, led by their Chair, Prime Minister Mottley of Barbados. They brokered an agreement between President David Granger and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo with the agreement of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), that all the votes would be recounted under the now well-known mantra: “Every vote must be counted, and every vote must count”. Ms Mottley spoke of “dark forces” at work in the elections’ machinery. The man in charge of the elections machinery is now rivalling “Mandrake” Mingo for infamy. Keith Lowenfield is the Chief Elections Officer who, along with President Granger, on the day of the Guyana elections, proclaimed it to be “free and fair”; in other words, no fraud. All the Elections Observer missions agreed. All that was left was for the votes in each electoral district to be counted and a winner declared. Then, with the PPP/C ahead after 9 of the 10 districts were counted, Mingo appeared with his magical numbers. Thereafter, Lowenfield fell in line with the “dark forces” to declare that the elections, of which he was the man-in-charge and which he had pronounced to be “free and fair”, had now become fraudulent. According to him, and without producing one shred of evidence to substan-
tiate his claim, over 260,000 of the 460,352 votes cast were either persons who had emerged from the graveyards of Guyana or somehow managed to be “abroad” while presenting themselves, National ID in hand, to vote at the polling stations. He subsequently reduced the number of fraudulent votes without explanation or evidence. So far, between Mingo and Lowenfield, the officials of GECOM have produced four different sets of figures at different times, not one pairing the other, but none of them matching the total votes as reflected in the statements of poll from each of the electoral districts on March 2. Mandrake and Houdini have raised the standard of elections-rigging in Guyana to a new and preposterous high. Meanwhile, a Caricom team of scrutineers, joined by a team from the OAS, scrutinised a National Recount of all the votes. The exercise began on May 6 and ended on June 8. The Caricom scrutineers and each of the supervisors of the recount certified that the PPP/C had won the elections by over 15,500 votes. The “dark forces” then rushed to the Court of Appeal, where two allegedly faithful judges agreed to bypass the High Court, where elections matters are normally heard. This was the third time since March 2 that APNUAFC agents have gone to the courts, and twice to the favoured Court of Appeal. Lowenfield was given the opportunity to provide a report to the GECOM Commission, in which he bold-facedly stated, with no evidence, that 115,587 votes were fraudu-
lent, and he gave the elections to the APNU-AFC. The GECOM Commission is yet to pronounce on this extraordinary difference with the scrutinised recount. This Guyana election has brought shame on Guyana, and risks tainting all of Caricom. The matter has now been taken to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) from which the people of our region expect fairness and justice. I hold no candle for any of the contesting parties in Guyana, but I hold aloft a blazing torch for democracy and the will of the people. As the Secretary-General of the OAS has said: “GECOM is in possession of a result based on the valid votes cast on March 2, 2020, through a recount exercise that was approved by all stakeholders and a credible result was provided. The process in Guyana must be brought to an end, based on the results of the National Recount, and with respect for the will of the majority of the electorate”. The dark forces in Guyana must not be allowed to contaminate or disgrace other countries in Caricom that value democracy and free and fair elections. Granger should be told by all Caricom leaders that all attempts to steal the elections have failed and are over. He should go now, put an end to the abuse of the Court system, and spare Guyana any further shame. John Beale Former Ambassador of Barbados to the US, Permanent Representative to the OAS
The PNC has once again brought shame and destruction to the black community
Dear Editor, It is with a heavy heart that I pen this letter as a young black professional, to witness the destructive force of the PNC as it was once told to me by my father. In the 70s, Burnham tricked my father and many others to bring all their wealth to Guyana on the promise of prosperity. They knew little of his criminal apparatus that eventually destroyed their lives, and by extension made it very hard for me and my siblings. Like many black kids back then, we never understood the level of suffering the PNC would bring into our future. The PNC then and now was never concerned about lifting its political base up, much less for the country. Its focus has always been to create a small elite group of supper rich friends and families as it sucks the life out of the country. It has always been comfortable, like Granger today, with watching the black community suffer as it tricks them to march
the streets in the name of “black development”. This mindset of the PNC first made its major impact when PNC people strategised to destroy the WPA, and eventually killed the first and only true black leader Guyana ever had, Walter Rodney. From then to now, the black community continued to suffer from the PNC cabal, with no mercy or compassion. The actions of Burnham to destroy the WPA are very similar to that of Granger today. As Rodney became the most influential black thought leader and global icon for underdeveloped countries, Burnham got scared, as he knew Rodney would destroy his scheme to keep his knees on the black community and all Guyanese. As stated in his book “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa”, the updated introduction outlines the following: First Burnham cut off Rodney’s ability to provide for his family by blocking his appointment at the University of Guyana, he then moved
to have the police force murder two senior members in the WPA. After that the PNC blew up a government building and blamed Rodney to silence him. During Rodney’s trial, Father Bernard Darke was killed while observing the proceedings in the interest of fairness. When Burnham saw that Rodney was winning his trial, he made the judge postpone the trial for three months, during which time a plan was hatched to assassinate Rodney. And that was the end of it. Sounds familiar? It’s because we see the same approach being used from the moment 34+32=65 to Lowenfield’s report. And the common thread to all of this is none other than David Arthur Granger, who was a protege of Burnham, who appointed him commander of the military. And of course we know now that it is the military apparatus that carried out the operation to assassinate Rodney. Like many other upstand-
ing blacks in Guyana, I do not want to be associated with Granger and his cabal criminal and thuggish behaviour. It is the kind of degenerate mindset we have been working hard to remove from our community from the time of slavery to now. PNC consists of a group of elitists who use black people’s suffering as a means to their end, and in turn they get rich. I want a leadership that opens opportunities for all Guyanese, and not just a few. I want democracy and good leadership. We want to have leaders who care for everyone, and can inspire positive change in the black community, like Walter Rodner did. The PPP has always been the only party that was founded on the premise that all races must be a part of Guyana’s development. Granger must stop this shameless behaviour and concede to the results of the elections of March 2 and allow Guyana to heal. Sincerely, Malcolm Watkins
