Jul 18, 2020
– GAP’s Allicock says statement uninformed, premature
While the State Government of Roraima, Brazil has in a statement expressed serious concerns about the developments of Guyana’s 2020 electoral process, particularly in light of the fact that the “democratically elected candidate, Dr. Irfaan Ali” has not yet been so declared by the Guyana Elections Commission, the Guyana Action Party (GAP)’s Sydney Allicock has called the statement premature and uninformed.
On Thursday, the government of Roraima took the opportunity to throw its support behind the Caribbean Court of Justice, the Organisation of American States (OAS), the European Union, the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Canada, in calling for the will of the people to be respected.
The recognition of Ali as the President-Elect in Guyana’s March 2 polls, finds its grounds in the transparent count of the national vote recount, which found that the PPP/C, of which Ali is presidential candidate, gained 233,336 votes in the general election, 15,416 votes ahead of the second highest vote gained by the governing coalition, APNU+AFC.
Subsequently, international observers condemned the Chief Elections Officer, Lowenfield’s false report and are mobilizing to take action.
The statement from Roraima came one day after the government of Brazil also urged a resolution to the impasse and expressed support for the recount results. Roraima is the one Brazilian state that shares a border with Guyana and, as a result, benefits from a fruitful economic relationship with the Lethem community.
The Guyana Action Party, one of the smaller players in A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), was founded two decades ago by Paul Hardy, a Guyanese businessman who lived and operated between Lethem, Region Nine, Guyana and Brazil – Roraima shares a border, defined by the Takutu River, with Region Nine. Allicock, de facto Second Vice-President and Minister of Indigenous Affairs in the Granger administration, told Kaieteur News last night that the statement from the Roraima Government is not as informed as it should be about the Guyana situation. He explained that he thinks such a statement, at this time, amounts to interference in the matters of a sovereign state, and that as an elections-related matter is currently in the High Court, all should be respectful and wait on its conclusion.
As for Roraima, Allicock said that the Government would be better off throwing its energies behind addressing the needs of the indigenous people there, and handling the COVID-19 situation it is currently struggling with. Allicock expressed worry that there has been a “general attack” from the international community, which is putting a lot of pressure on the Guyana government from all angles.
“There is no killing or situation of emergency here,” he argued, adding that any pronouncement from a foreign state on Guyana’s electoral situation should wait until after a final elections declaration is made.
This is not the first time the state of Roraima State’s leadership had found itself the subject of accusations of foreign interference. Weeks before the 2011 general elections in Guyana, in the wake of then Governor José de Anchieta Júnior appearing onstage at a PPP/C campaign rally in Lethem, the Alliance For Change (AFC) had called on the Roraima government to apologise to the people of Guyana, arguing that it was bad protocol for one state to openly seek to influence the politics of another.
The PPP/C in response had said that the Governor merely used the platform to bring greetings from the neighbouring state to the residents of Region Nine, but the Government Information Agency (GINA) had reported then Governor lauding the leadership of former President Bharrat Jagdeo. Anchieta Júnior’s party, Brazilian Social Democracy party, has since been voted out of Roraima state government, and was replaced by Denarium’s Social Liberal party.