Guyanese will vote on Monday for a Government that they wish to conduct the affairs of the nation on their behalf for the next five years. Every registered Guyanese has the right to vote and this right must be protected and respected before and after it is exercised. If the majority of Guyanese collectively choose to return the PPP/C to office, despite the great disappointment this will cause among APNU+AFC supporters, this choice must be accepted peacefully. If Guyanese decide to change their Government and support the APNU+AFC coalition, whatever trepidation PPP/C supporters may feel, their Party having been in power for 22 plus years, Guyanese must equally accept the results peacefully.
Notwithstanding the criticisms that have been made of GECOM over the past few months, it is well positioned to deliver free and fair elections, as it has done since 1992. Criticisms of one kind or another have been made at every election time but foreign observers have unanimously, since 1992, confirmed that elections have been free and fair. Their presence, that of President Jimmy Carter, an enduring friend of Guyana, along with local observers, at these elections is welcome and lends confidence to a process that has been under suspicion only because of historical reasons.
Political parties struggle for every vote and it is reasonable to expect criticisms that are targeted to improving the process. But allegations of the rigging of past elections and plans by the Police to arrest many people so that the results can be affected, which means several thousands of