Dear Editor
EVER since the March 2, 2020 elections, I have been tempted to write you on issues I considered highly disturbing and “anti-national,” whereby prominent political figures have been calling for sanctions against leading national figures and Guyana. The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has claimed without verifiable evidence that it has won the elections and accused Returning Officer (RO) Clairmont Mingo of attempts to manipulate the elections in favour of the APNU+AFC.
The PPP/C has made these claims using fabricated SOPs showing increased voter preference for them in polling divisions, which traditionally voted for the APNU+AFC Coalition, such as Sophia and adjoining communities. When it became evident that this strategy was not going to work, they disrupted the proceedings at GECOM during the tabulation of Region Four and progressed to the courts to file motion after motion to either stall the process with frivolities or to coerce the court in overturning the inevitable – the victory of the coalition. From all preliminary tabulations, the APNU+AFC Coalition received a clear vote of confidence from the Guyanese people to retain power. It even appeared as though the coalition has secured enough votes to increase its parliamentary seats in the National Assembly.
The PPP/C and the never-ending list of shenanigans have continued even now during the national recount. They have carried the circus over to the Arthur Chung Conference Centre. I am hoping that Guyanese, irrespective of political persuasion, are paying attention to what is unfolding inside the centre. As the boxes are being counted from Regions One, Two, Three and Four, there is growing evidence that on March 2, tombstones were raided. An increasing number of dead persons voted in the national and regional elections.
In Guyana, as in most other jurisdictions within the region, dead people are not allowed to vote. Their votes in these and any elections would be considered a contaminant to the democratic process. When it was proposed to clean up the list because of the potential for resurrecting the dead, the PPP/C opposed and now the real reason is being unearthed at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre. It is, therefore, not surprising to hear PPP/C Commissioner Sase Gunraj dismissing the discovery of dead people voting as immaterial. How could this be “immaterial” to the verification process? It is very central to the process of verification and authenticity of the elections.
I believe that anywhere it is found that the dead participated, those boxes should be discarded and removed from the tabulation. It should be the same for those persons who have migrated and were not present in Guyana on March 2, 2020, but cast a ballot. This kind of electoral fraud does not belong in our democracy and those who encourage it should be condemned, and GECOM must be resolute in its ruling to stamp it out.
How could these leaders go on camera and argue that the padding of ballot boxes with the votes of migrants and/or dead people is immaterial? There should be a collective outrage that this kind of fraud is being defended by persons who once held political power in our country. In some instances, it was not a single occurrence to be argued as a mistake; it occurred multiple times in one polling station. In my estimation, this electoral fraud scheme signals a deliberate act and should be punishable according to the laws of Guyana.
In the United States, the Heritage Foundation maintains an Election Fraud Database, which presents a wide but not an exhaustive sampling of election fraud across the country. The Heritage Foundation said, “In addition to diluting the votes of legitimate voters, fraud can have an impact in close elections,”
It goes on the say, “Preventing, deterring, and prosecuting election fraud is essential to protecting the integrity of our voting process. Winning elections leads to political power and the incentives to take advantage of security vulnerabilities are great, so it is important that we take reasonable steps to make it hard to cheat while making it easy for legitimate voters to vote.” In one instance in the State of Michigan, altering the vote count either in a precinct or at the central location where votes are counted, attracted a criminal conviction.
The island of Jamaica has had instances of ballot boxes or an entire voting cluster voided due to various elements of fraud. In the early 2000s, there have also been instances of a re-run in electoral divisions or constituencies due to widespread discrepancies, including cases of fraud, such as tampering with ballot boxes. Guyana has a history of close elections and a few dead people or migrants voting can tilt the results one way or another.
That is why the position taken by the PPP/C that the cases of outright fraud being uncovered is immaterial and should be rejected. In fact, in addition to cleaning the list for the next election, there should also be an effort to tighten the penalties for such action against the perpetrators. The emerging evidence thus far at the national recount has vindicated the call of the coalition that the process should not simply be the summation of votes for the contending parties, but a complete verification of the entire process, including the number of electors on the list versus those who voted, how they voted, and who voted without IDs, etc. The PPP/C’s standard-bearers of Sase Gunraj, Anil Nandlall, Irfaan Ali and Bharrat Jagdeo can protest all they want; at the end of the recount, the Guyanese people will see them for what they are – anti-nationalists, who want to punish Guyana because we dared to demand that our votes be counted.
Regards
Nazeema Mohamed
Source: https://issuu.com/guyanachroniclee-paper/docs/guyana_chronicle_epaper_05_11_2020