PPP/C deliberately frustrating GECOM’s work to prevent recount

Dear Editor
THERE’s a saying that life can only be lived forward but understood backwards. On March 10, 2020, one day before the High Court was set to rule on the injunction brought before it by Mr Anil Nandlall’s former driver, the now-deceased Mr Reeaz Holladar committed suicide. I can only imagine how distraught and hurt his wife, children and family must feel.

Since the free and fair elections conducted on March 2, 2020, the PPP/C has tried several tactics to frustrate the work of GECOM aimed at blocking GECOM from making a final declaration and ultimately the swearing in of President Granger. The first set of attempts to frustrate the work of GECOM included efforts to sabotage the electoral process. For example, it is alleged and there is supporting evidence showing that the PPP/C attempted to insert fake SOPs into the tabulation of votes by GECOM. Other examples include encouraging multiple voting and vote-buying as far as Whitewater Creek Primary School in Region One and Christiansburg in Linden.

The second category of efforts to sabotage GECOM included a physical assault on the GECOM Command Centre, threats on the life and person of GECOM’s Chairperson, its CEO and several other officials. After it didn’t get its way, the PPP/C decided to use Guyana’s court system to frustrate the work of GECOM. All this time, the PPP/C kept sharing threats of sanctions and the like made by a handful of politicians in the USA. Several politicians are included in a long list of persons and organisations Mercury Public Affairs lobbied on behalf of the PPP/C. (Side note: readers should understand what lobbying is).

On March 8, 2020, Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire, ruling on the Holladar injunction, ordered that the tabulation of votes for District Four ought to continue or restart. This was undertaken and completed by GECOM in the presence of a minimum of two representatives from each political party and other accredited officials. Again, because the final figures showed that APNU+AFC received the majority of votes, the PPP/C did their best to discredit the tabulation exercise.

Notwithstanding this, President Granger extended a hand of harmony on March 10, 2020, by publicly suggesting that he, as well as the coalition, would countenance a recount of all 10 electoral districts in keeping with the constitution, electoral laws and statutory responsibilities of GECOM.

Fast forward to April 3, 2020, when the Chairperson of GECOM and the commission proper, agreed to a national recount commencing with District One. One day before taking this decision, Gerry Gouveia, Chairman for life of the Private Sector Commission it seems, wrote to the Organisation of American States (OAS), the same OAS that was responsible for organising a coup in Bolivia resulting in theft of the elections from the people of Bolivia and incumbent Eva Morales led Government of Bolivia. Immediately after GECOM took the decision for a national recount, the PPP began making new requests which were outside of its agreement with GECOM. To date, these requests have been: (1) invite the OAS to overlook the recount, (2) invite the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an organ of the OAS and (3) request that the tabulation exercise is televised nationally.

When the current Chairperson of CARICOM and Prime Minister of Barbados mentioned that there are forces that do not want a recount, I presume she had already connected the dots and determined which party was frustrating the work of GECOM and possibly the reasons they have been engaged in such measures some two years before the March 2, 2020 elections.

 Regards
R. Chung-A-On

Source: https://issuu.com/guyanachroniclee-paper/docs/guyana_chronicle_epaper_04_09_2020

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