Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon yesterday said that President Donald Ramotar’s recent accusations that APNU and AFC manipulated the results of the 2011 general elections are justifiable.
Ramotar was quoted in the Guyana Chronicle’s Sunday edition as saying “For sure, I think we had over 50%. I think we lost some votes, no doubt, but I don’t think we lost enough to bring us under 50%, but the results were through manipulation”, when asked whether the PPP/C was robbed.
He later said that “My own realistic assessment was that we had probably between 52 [and] 53 (per cent),” while also indicating that his party withdrew requests for partial recounts to avert any outbreak of violence.
“The external observers have pronounced and it is our contention if notwithstanding what they have said that there is indeed justification for the comments made by the president. You might know that the PPP was the only contending party in the elections that lodged an objection or objections within the stipulated time frame. You might know also that after discussions the PPP withdrew those objections, primarily in Regions Three and Four,” Luncheon said in response to questions from this newspaper during a post-Cabinet press briefing.
Luncheon did not respond to a question on if it is the party’s position that the elections were rigged but did address a question on the legitimacy of his government and the basis for the accusation.
“I don’t believe that the statement in any way could be construed to be a reflection or to have an impact on the legitimacy of the government save and except you might be speaking about the government and the plurality,” he said, pointing out that this is exactly what the president was alluding to.
“There wasn’t any question of the constitutionality of the decision made by the commission in appointing Donald Ramotar as the president of Guyana after the elections,” he said.
It was noted that what the President’s remarks led to, was an examination of the vote counting, the plurality and “most of his comments address those instances where the PPP insists that mischief was afoot in counting the votes”.
He said too that the PPP was the only one that lodged an objection or objections within the stipulated time frame.
Asked if he was still sure that Ramotar’s comments were justified even though the Region Four returning officer almost submitted incorrect results in favour of the PPP, Luncheon said “I repeat what I said…the PPP/C was the only party that lodged formal objections in electoral district three and electoral district Four. The PPP voluntarily withdrew those objections but I insist that basis was not of PPP’s creation, it existed and the fact that the objection was withdrawn doesn’t depreciate the existence of the facts that led to the objections”.
When asked what were those facts, he responded “I think you would need to speak to the President, I am not that familiar with the machinery of the PPP…”
No consensus
Luncheon stated that from the first engagement among the three parliamentary political parties Ramotar repeatedly offered to have a forensic audit and to have the matter go to court but this never happened. He explained that there was no consensus between the parties to move in those directions.
Asked if this could not have been done unilaterally outside the consensus if the government really wanted to prove its case, he said that at the second meeting between the parties “one could hardly in the spirit of consensus in the extremely congenial atmosphere at that point exercise the presidential fiat in disregard of the ambience of the engagement.
“I am amaze at your leap of logic. Here it is that the President pronounced on a PPP conviction that mischief was afoot, identified two main perpetrators and out of the blue you have linked this with GECOM,” he said in response to being asked if there would be a revamp of Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) since the opportunity has now been created for parties to be in consensus.
He later acknowledged that GECOM was the body responsible for managing the elections and the results.
Ramotar’s remarks have been strongly condemned by Leader of the Opposition David Granger and by the AFC which urged him to retract them and apologise to the electorate.
The PPP/C ended up with 48.6% of the vote which meant that it lost control of Parliament for the first time since 1992.
