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NEWS 11 THURSDAY, JULY 2, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM Granger snubs coalition partner’s call for APNU/AFC to concede

…refuses to accept defeat unless notified by GECOM

As both local and interall the sons and daughters national calls mount of this nation. Enough is for the APNU/AFC enough, I say it is time for to concede defeat in the Guyana to move on!” Sharma March 2 elections, Leader had stated in his missive on of the Coalition, caretaker June 20. President David Granger, But Granger, who is also has distanced himself from the leader of the People’s similar calls within his party. National Congress Reform

During an interview on (PNCR) – the leading partythe sidelines of an event at ing in the APNU faction - has State House on Wednesday, contended that the JFAP actGranger refused to comment ed on its own accord, and noton a recent statement by ed that he is not responsible Alliance For Change (AFC) for what the party has said. Executive Dominic Gaskin, “I do not dictate what who is also his son-in-law. they say, although I have

In a Facebook post two Caretaker President every expectation that what AFC Executive and weeks ago, Gaskin, a forDavid Granger they say and do would be in former Business Minister mer Business Minister in Granger’s Cabinet, said there is “no reasonable basis” on which the APNU/AFC can claim to have won more votes than the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) at the March 2 elections, and called on the Coalition to “level” with their supporters. Asked by Guyana Times on Wednesday to comment on this, the Head of State said, “No, I don’t have any comments on what former ministers say.” However, he did respond to the statement by the Justice For All Party (JFAP) – one of the five parties that make up the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) faction of the Coalition. The CN Sharma-led JFAP had conceded defeat, and had congratulated the PPP/C on its victory at the polls. “I am appealing to the persons who are determined on delaying the process of a declaration: It has been an exhausting 108 days for accord with the principles of the entire Partnership. And we meet, and the Justice For All Party has not been excluded, especially over the past 17 weeks, from any meetings of the APNU… We’ve always explained the process which is being pursued and the line which our Partnership was taking. There is no secret, and all six parties [within the Coalition] are aware of the positions which have been taken in our approach to the Elections Commission. We don’t have any hidden agenda within the Coalition,” President Granger has said. Moreover, the caretaker President has responded to mounting calls from both local and international stakeholders for his party to concede defeat. “I cannot claim victory, which I have not done; and I cannot concede victory, which I have not done; unless I am notified formally by the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission what Dominic Gaskin Guyana has been postponed owing to the spike in coronavirus cases. The second phase of the plan was expected to commence on Tuesday.

However, as of Monday, Guyana recorded 248 positive cases of COVID-19 and as a result, the National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF) and the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) extended phase one the results of the elections Phased reopening of CJIA postponed due to spike in COVID-19 cases of the 2nd March – 121 days ago, over 17 weeks – have been. I don’t know what the Elections Commission will declare,” he posited. T he four-phase reopening plan for the international airports in …curfew measures expire today “I encourage all the spokespersons and commentators to wait patiently on the

Granger went on to say, until July 31 after which The Cheddi Jagan International Airport phase two will commence on August 1. GCAA Director General Egbert Field noted that the Authority and the NCTF considered the health of Guyanese and the nation as top priority, thus, it was imperative to adjust the FourPhase Reopening Plan. Under phase one, limited repatriation flights, outgoing flights, cargo flights, medivac flights, technical stops, and special authorised flights will continue to be permitted. In light of this, no airline has been granted approval for the conduct of scheduled commercial operation. The GCAA said it has drafted Regulations and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to guide aviation stakeholders on the measures which are expected to aid in mitigation of the spread of COVID-19 and the full resumption of aviation-related activities. The Authority in conjunction with the Public Health Ministry and the NCTF will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation. Curfew measures expire Back in June, the NCTF announced the extension of the 18:00h to 06:00h (6pm to 6am) curfew measures until July 2. Additionally, it announced a six-phase reopening plan. It is expected that the curfew measures will be further extended today. It was noted that the current 18:00h to 06:00h (6pm to 6am) curfew remained in effect for phase one in all administrative regions. During the first phase, all food establishments, including street vendors, are permitted to operate takeout and delivery services from 06:00h to 17:00h (6am to 5pm) with no dine-in services. Hardware, plumbing and electrical stores will also be allowed to operate from 06:00h to 17:00h (6am to 5pm) while persons will be allowed to exercise in open public spaces on weekdays from 06:00h to 18:00h for 90 minutes. Contact or team sports are still prohibited, while bars are to remain closed. Public transport is expected to continue to operate at 50 per cent passenger capacity as social distancing rules and the wearing of face masks must be maintained. Moreover, gatherings of more than five persons remain prohibited while the stay-at-home order also remains in effect. In relation to the phased reopening of the airports, phase two will see travel permitted for diplomats and foreign workers. It will also see an increase in repatriation flights while moving towards the resumption of regional and international travel. Phase three will pave the way for more travel of foreign nationals and the persons in the tourism and business sectors. It was expected to run until year-end when phase four will kickstart. That phase leads to the further reopening of the airports into 2021. Since the curfew measures were implemented, a large number of persons were charged and placed before the courts for breaching them.

Chairman of the Elections Commission, who, when she’s ready, will make a declaration, and I said before I’ll abide by that declaration.”

However, while the caretaker Head of State has reiterated his commitment to abide by GECOM’s declaration, his party had move to the courts, through its supporter Eslyn David, to block GECOM from moving ahead with the process.

Further, his utterance that he never claimed victory is completely opposite to what has played out since March, when the Coalition began claiming victory – something which the 33-day National Recount has proven otherwise.

The recount exercise conducted under the scrutiny of a special Caribbean Community (Caricom) team shows the PPP/C in a landslide victory with some 15,416 more votes than the APNU/AFC.

Despite being asked to prepare a report based on the results of the recount, embattled Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield last week submitted a report to the seven-member Elections Commission in which he invalidated more than 115,000 votes based on the Coalition’s unsubstantiated claims of irregularities.

However, Gaskin in his social post on June 20, has stated that these claims were

JFAP Leader CN Sharma

“grossly exaggerated” and, unfortunately, “designed to fool” party supporters, who had placed their faith in the Coalition into believing that there was actual evidence of serious elections rigging by the PPP/C.

“All of this leads me to a very uncomfortable conclusion: The APNU+AFC has no intention of relinquishing control of government. Five years after winning an election and gaining office with a fair amount of goodwill, the coalition is saying to the people who put us there the equivalent of, ‘unless and until WE are satisfied beyond a shadow of a doubt that “more votes are cast” in favour of another party in an election that WE deem credible, WE ain’t going nowhere”. That condition will never be satisfied,” Gaskin asserted.

12 NEWS THURSDAY, JULY 2, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Sugar, poultry, forestry contracted significantly in 2019

…as Finance Ministry releases End-of-Year Report

The Finance Ministry since 2015, when the indushas released its Endtry attained record producof-Year Report for tion of 1,058,129 metric 2019. While the report talks tonnes. up the economic growth, it Production in 2019 suralso shows major decline in passed the 2018 harvest several economic sectors in by 8.8%, or 84,755 metric the economy. tonnes, resulting in growth

According to the Report, of 1% in the rice cultivation released on Wednesday, industry in 2019. sugar production contractThe manufacturing seced by a sharp 11.8% in 2019, tor realised significant with the Guyana Sugar growth of 14.7% in 2019, Corporation (GuySuCo) fallthe highest rate since 2013, ing significantly short of its when the sector grew by production target. 8.2%. This achievement was

The Report also noted bolstered by rice and other that poultry production did manufacturing, which exnot recover sufficiently to panded by 26.4% and 14% overcome the decline recordrespectively. ed at the half-year. This reConstruction expandsulted in a 7.8% decline in ed for a fourth consecutive poultry production in 2019, year, with growth reaching which in turn led to a con3.1%, 0.2 percentage points traction of 3.5%. in the livestock subsector. Additionally, the forabove the rate achieved in 2018. foreign reserves climbed to US$575.6 million; with priGovernment, as many stakeholders, including the estry subsector recorded notable gains at the halfyear, which persisted into the third quarter; however, these were undone in the final quarter of 2019, resulting in a contraction of 3.9% for the entire year. Fisheries experienced mixed outcomes in 2019, with finfish production increasing by 19.7% over the previous year, and shrimp production declining by 28%. On the other hand, the Report noted that the quantity of paddy harvested in 2019 reached 1,049,874 metric tonnes, the highest level Stable Despite these damning indicators, the report stated that the economy performed “creditably and remained stable”, with key macroeconomic variables continuing to be “favourable” and pointing to “sustained growth and investments for a successive year”. According to the report, real GDP growth was an “impressive” 5.4 percent, with 4.3 percent recorded for the non-oil economy. The Ministry reported that balance of payments deficit fell to US$49 million, and vate sector credit rising by 8.6 percent; and inflation remained moderate at 2.1 percent. It added that the stock of public debt fell to US$1,689.1 million, 32.7 percent of nominal GDP. “Progress continued across several sectors in 2019, and there was focused effort in prioritising institutional strengthening and more evidence-based policymaking,” the report stated. However, much of what was presented in the report appeared to be a public relations stunt by the Coalition Private Sector, have been complaining of the economy being in a “terrible state”. The last budget approved by Guyana’s National Assembly was one for the fiscal year ending 2019, which means that all expenditure for the first half of 2020 has been curtailed to a monthly one-twelfth of the previous year’s expenditure. The new Government, however, will soon find out that Guyana as a country is “broke.” Not only has the country’s general reserves been depleted to $0, but the ac

count is also now running an overdraft to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars.

This is in addition to an alarmingly depleted gold reserve. The state of affairs can be gleaned from the published balance statements of the nation’s accounts held by the Bank of Guyana.

Bank of Guyana

The Bank of Guyana, as part of its statutory requirements, published in the Official Gazette a Statement of Assets and Liabilities for the country.

The state of play, as illustrated in the May 23 publication of the Official Gazette, reveals that the General Reserve is -$290,667, 332.

Additionally, Public Deposits have been depleted to below $0, also recording a negative balance of -$88,629,401,855.

Guyana’s Contingency Reserve Account also reflects an alarmingly low amount of $2.3 billion.

When APNU/AFC took office in May 2015, the Bank of Guyana’s Statement of Assets and Liabilities reflected a completely different situation.

According to the records, when the coalition APNU/ AFC took Office in 2015, Guyana’s gold reserves were stocked at $15 billion.

The latest figures show that the gold reserves have been depleted by the APNU/

In response, Armour said the language of the Constitution must be construed in a way to avoid inherent contradictions. According to him, the framers of the Constitution inserted both clauses in the Constitution, and they must have intended them to serve different purposes.

Armour also went on to urge the court to limit itself to what the Court of Appeal ruled on. He noted that the Court of Appeal did not grant the coercive orders that had been sought, and that moreover, based on the material before it and Article 177(4), the CCJ cannot say that the Court of Appeal was plainly wrong.

Counter-productive

Also in the lineup was Senior Counsel John Jeremie, who represents David. He sought to rebut the arguments made by Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes, who represents the applicants, People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Presidential Candidate Dr Irfaan Ali and the party’s General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo.

In the middle of telling the Court that Mendes cannot tell him what an election is, Justice Saunders AFC administration to less than $1 billion, and now stand at $715 million.

This reflects a difference of $14.3 billion spent by the sitting Administration during its time in office, not accounting for the additional sales of gold that would have cycled through the financial system over the course of the administration’s five years in office.

In 2015, Guyana’s General Reserve had in its coffers just about $6 billion, while the Contingency Reserve held $4 billion. Today, those savings have been eroded to below zero dollars, to now reflect considerable overdrafts.

According to the May 2020 figures, the General Reserves now stand at minus $291 million, while the Public Deposits now account for an $89 billion red mark, or overdraft, against the country.

While the Contingency Reserve stood at $4.8 billion when the APNU/AFC Coalition took office, the current accounts reflect a balance of just about 2.3 billion.

Also, just recently, PPP/C Presidential Candidate Irfaan Ali, who is an economist by training, painted a gloomy picture of the current state of the economy, which he said is largely due to the lack of foresight by the incumbent APNU/AFC

New GDF Chief vows to only support democratic Govts

Newly appointed Chief interview with media operof Staff (CoS) of the atives, the newly appointed Guyana Defence Chief of Staff said he brings Force (GDF), Brigadier energy to the helm of the Godfrey Bess, has commitarmy, and further committed ted to supporting a democratto continue defending the inically elected Government, as tegrity of Guyana. mandated by the Constitution “The Guyana Defence of Guyana. Force has been mandated by

Speaking with reportlaw to defend and protect our ers on Wednesday, the newnational patrimony. As the ly-sworn-in Chief of Staff Chief of Staff, I see that as a assured that the Guyana sacrosanct duty, and we will Defence Force would continue work hard to ensure that we to abide by the Constitution continue to defend the integof Guyana. He was at the rity of this country,” he postime responding to questions ited. about whether the army, unBrigadier Bess further der his control, would support an undemocratically elected Newly-appointed Chief of Staff, Brigadier Godfrey Bess related that one of the main challenges he anticipates Government in Guyana. “We (were) trained to support the democratically elected Government of the day based on our constitution, and that we will continue to do…The Guyana Defence Force is a professional organization, and we will stick to the Constitution of Guyana,” he asserted. According to Brigadier Bess, the army is always subordinate to civil authority, and is premised on taking legal instructions and advice. The newly appointed Chief of Staff is taking over the GDF at a time when the country is undergoing an unprecedented political situation. While the certified results from the National Recount show that the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic won the March 2 elections, the caretaker Coalition APNU/AFC Government is challenging those results in a move that has been seen as one aimed at them remaining in office. In fact, the APNU/AFC has supported a widely criticised and fraudulent report submitted to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) by embattled Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield, who has invalidated more than 115,000 votes. Brigadier Bess has been promoted from the rank of Colonel, and received his Instrument as the new Army Chief on Wednesday from Commander-in-Chief, President David Granger, who is also the Head of the Defence Board. President Granger told the new Army Chief that he would now be tasked with exercising the functions of command and the issuance of authoritative orders in respect to the operations of the Force, subject to the directives of the Defence Board and the Minister responsible for Defence. “Command includes the authority and responsibility for effectively employing the Force’s assets, and for coordinating and controlling military forces for the accomplishment of the Force’s mission. Leadership, unlike command, cannot be mandated by law. It is an essential element in military command, however, and involves motivating the Force’s manpower to achieve success in its operations and missions,” the Commander in Chief stated. Energy to the helm Meanwhile, during a brief facing is inadequate resources to perform the army’s functions. However, he noted that the Defence Force training has equipped the army with the skills to ensure that it gets the job done with even the minimal of resources. “So, training in the Guyana Defence Force, we take it seriously, and it helps us in these challenges,” he stated. Brigadier Bess, who previously served as Director of National Events, is replacing outgoing Chief of Staff, Brigadier Patrick West, who has been sent on pre-retirement leave. West, who did not attend the ceremony at State House, proceeded on accumulated leave with effect from Wednesday, July 1, 2020, and will be off the job until March 2021.

“How can the Constitution grant exclusive...

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Coalition. interjected to ask whether “he was able to cite any case where a question as to the validity of the election of some governmental official was heard and determined by the courts before the official was elected.”

To this, he admitted that he had not been able to cite such a case. It was not until 16:25h, more than five hours later, that Jeremie was able to cite his precedent, a Mauritian case from 2011 that the Privy Council decided on.

Even worse, Jeremie cited the case of Narayan Khare, a case which CCJ Justice Maureen RajnauthLee pointed out is actually counter-productive to his position. While Jeremie sought to use it to bolster his arguments that a candidate does not have to be elected before triggering Article 177(4), the Judge noted that according to the ruling “the petition was seen as premature… that power in the Supreme Court to enquire into the election of the president can be exercised only after the candidate is elected.”

At the end of the hearing, the court decided on next week Wednesday, at 15:00h to make its ruling on the issue of jurisdiction and the substantive appeal.