THE last two weeks have been quite a lesson for Guyana. It was plain for all who cared to pay attention that there was a well-orchestrated plot to subvert the democratic process in our country, while pretending to protect democracy. We have witnessed this storyline over and over for the last three decades. People use democracy as a mask to hide their nefarious intentions and actions.
For the better part of 23 years the top leadership of a major political party paraded as agents of democratic restoration, while using their access to power to transform the State into a medium of economic criminality, ethnic domination and extra-judicial killings. By the time rescue came via the ballot box five years ago, Guyana had reached the brink of a failed state.
After a mere four years of repair work, an unwarranted attack was launched to thwart the desire of the majority of Guyanese to renew the mandate of the repairers. It all began on December 20, 2019, when with the aid of a disgruntled coalition backbencher, a brazen attempt was made to seize power through the back door in the form of a no-confidence motion. It was an act that came like a thief in the night as Guyanese prepared for the festive season. What followed was a year of legal and extra-legal manipulation masquerading as democratisation. It took all the resolve of the Guyanese and the tenacity of their elected leaders to defend the democratically elected government of the day.
Having failed to unconstitutionally dislodge the government, the plotters set their sights on the 2020 elections. They telegraphed their intentions by introducing the narrative of rigged elections long before the first ballot was cast. But even as they tried to spread that falsehood, they were engaged in the actual attempts to rig the system. They did everything in their power to go to the elections with a tainted voters’ list. Every attempt by GECOM to sanitise the list, including a brand-new house-to-house registration was disrupted. In the end the final voters list, despite some degree of sanitisation, left some room for manipulation which from all reports was utilised by those who are currently shouting about democratic elections.
The brazen invasion of GECOM by gunmen attached to the major opposition party showed the extent to which that party is prepared to go to illegally seize power. The massing of their supporters in the public space resulted in violent attacks on schoolchildren and the security forces that were captured for the world to see. Eventually one citizen died as he openly attacked policemen and women who were dispatched to quell the directed uprisings. These uprisings from all indications were designed to not only attack those perceived to be supporters of the coalition, but to also provoke retaliation from adjoining communities. That these communities did not respond to taunts in that regard is a testimony to the restraint exercised by the coalition leadership.
What is most egregious about the plot as it unfolded was the seeming success of the plotters to enlist the support of some civil society organisations, which in turn appeared to have misled some of the international observer groups. We do not make a charge of direct collusion between the local anti-democratic plotters and the observer groups, but the apparent reluctance to call out the aggression of the local opposition is somewhat baffling. Further, the rush to judgement on the veracity of the elections is rather unfortunate to say the least. Such judgements in a highly volatile environment run against best practices as far as elections observation is concerned.
The move to the courts on two occasions, which was claimed to be done as judicial review, has turned out to be nothing more than disruptive tactics. The rulings of the court were not respected by the plotters as they did not aid their objectives. As was the case with the no-confidence motion, there were clear attempts to bully the court into granting consequential orders that would have usurped the power of an independent agency and in the process pave the way for the undemocratic seizure of power. The chief justice was adamant that the court would not be drawn into the plot.
The naked attempt to delegitimise GECOM is most shameful. We hold no brief for that agency, but given the tremendous pressure it has had to withstand from hostile actors, it deserved the full commendation of all decent-minded Guyanese. The attacks on the integrity of the Region Four Returning Officer and the GECOM Chair are unprecedented, even for a country that is accustomed to contentious elections. As we await the final declarations, we can expect more of the plot to unfold and more of the self-serving rhetoric of defence of democracy. But the masks are off, and the Guyanese people can see the real hijackers of democracy.
Source: https://issuu.com/guyanachroniclee-paper/docs/guyana_chronicle_e-paper_3-15-2020