– CARICOM should be very worried
Dear Editor,
FOREIGN electoral interventions are attempts by governments, covertly or overtly, to influence elections in another country. There are many ways that nations have accomplished regime change abroad, and electoral intervention is only one of those methods.
In fact, Corstange and Marinov have identified two types of electoral interventions, partisan foreign influencer takes the side of open of the parties and process – this is when the foreign influencer tries to dictate a democratic electoral process i.e. how the electoral process and system ought to work.
The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) hired Mercury Public Affairs to engineer foreign interference in Guyana’s General and Regional Elections, Guyana’s electoral system and the constitutional agency responsible for managing and overseeing the electoral system – GECOM. In addition to this, the PPP hired Mercury to engineer social unrest and deepen divisions among the Guyanese people. Such blatant disregard and disrespect for Guyana’s Constitution by the PPP follow a track record of the PPP. In 1997 Janet Jagan threw a Court Order preventing her swearing-in because she was secretly sworn in before the Court Order was served, thereby nullifying the effect of it.
In short, Mercury was hired to solicit and shape the opinions of a several US Government Officials, elections observer missions, the US Foreign Relations Senate Committee, the Ambassadors of the ABC countries, and the President of the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C. among others. The range of topics that Mercury and the PPP sought to influence public opinion and the narrative on including the no-confidence motion, the Caribbean Court of Justice, performance of the economy and a range of elections issues including the presumptive winner, riggers and the use and threat of sanctions to influence and dominate public opinion in Guyana and further afield.
Encouraging foreign interference in Guyana’s elections is unprecedented. In fact, this has never happened in any other CARICOM member state. This should be a grave concern for CARICOM as we can expect more of this type of strategy being used by political parties in the region. If this continues in short, this will bring greater political instability, social unrest, and denial of the will of the people in each member state. Foreign electoral interventions are attempts by governments, covertly or overtly, to influence elections in another country. There are many ways that nations have accomplished regime change abroad, and electoral intervention is only one of those methods.
Regards,
R. Chung-A-On
Source: https://issuu.com/guyanachroniclee-paper/docs/guyana-chronicle-epaper_03_24_2020_