Rejecting the controversial vote count that was initially declared by Region Four Returning Officer (RO) Clairmont Mingo, AFC executive and former Business Minister Dominic Gaskin on Friday said there needs to be a full investigation to determine if there was wrongdoing by Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) officials in connection with the integrity of Statements of Poll (SOPs) or the tabulation of results from the March 2 elections.
Gaskin, the son-in-law of President David Granger, made the pronouncements on Friday in a Facebook post, where he also noted the need for a new model of governance.
The contentious tabulation of the Region Four votes by Mingo has been decried due to the lack of transparency over the process and his initial declaration was found to be unlawful by the High Court. His initial count and another that has also been rejected by international observers would see the APNU+AFC coalition returned to office for a second term.
Gaskin, who had a week earlier voiced concerns about the Region Four figures from Mingo, said on Friday that the tabulation process descended into chaos and disorder on Wednesday, March 4, resulting in a declaration being made by Mingo on Thursday, March 5.
He noted that the declaration placed the APNU+AFC coalition ahead of the PPP/C opposition by some 59,000 votes in District 4 and by approximately 7,000 votes overall in the general election.
“There was immediate and widespread rejection of this declaration, based primarily on procedural grounds and a lack of transparency. I too have taken a position (personal) on the Mingo Declaration – I don’t buy his numbers. Who vex, vex! I am not attempting to convince anyone that my position is the right one. I’ve gone beyond that. I am also not condemning anyone for whatever position they may wish to take. Life is too short,” he wrote.
He later said that all voters deserve to know the true result of the process in which they innocently and dutifully participated. “There needs to be a full investigation to ascertain whether there was any wrong-doing on the part of individuals within GECOM as it relates to the integrity of statements of poll or the tabulation of results thereof,” he added.
Gaskin further said that as a result of the current situation, there is a loss of confidence in GECOM and he asserted that it cannot purport to hold credible elections in the future unless it can satisfactorily address the major concerns that have been raised about its declared results and the post-election processes leading to those declarations.
This is one of a number of “major problems” that he sees arising out of the post-elections controversy.
Gaskin also listed the inability of APNU and/or the AFC to win another election in the near future, saying that whether through public perception or bias, it is a very likely consequence of what has taken place and doesn’t bode well for the future. “I personally find the prospect of the PPP/C winning elections and remaining in power for another decades-long stretch quite frightening,” he added.
He also noted the societal damage from “exacerbated ethnic tensions,” while noting that all that has been said, implied and displayed since March 2 has severely damaged the “fragile but admirable co-existence” of the two major ethnic groups. “In my view, race voting is not necessarily racism. Neither is the passionate advocacy for better conditions for a particular ethnicity. However, a lot of our recent behavior has crossed the line and is clearly racist and harmful to social cohesion,” he observed.
Against this background, Gaskin argued that now may be a good time to question whether western style democracy in a plural society with Guyana’s particular demography is a model the country should continue to embrace. “Tyranny of the majority or minority is a valid concern for both Afro- and Indo-Guyanese respectively. The former can prevail almost indefinitely without so much as a raised eyebrow from the international community, as long as it is punctuated by regular free, fair and credible elections. The other can only prevail in the absence of free, fair and credible elections. Neither option is good for Guyana,” he wrote.
He added that a new model of governance which does not incite the current level of divisiveness every five years is needed and he noted that it is not something that can be left to any incumbent to address. “It will never happen. There must be a binding commitment from all parties as part of a packaged resolution of the current situation. Finding a permanent solution is not rocket science. Those who are not up to the task should step out of the way and allow better minds to figure it out – lots of bright young people in Guyana,” he further said.
“Elections 2020 [have] been a national embarrassment. If we cannot manage a simple election, how the heck do we plan to manage an oil economy? We seem to be doing everything possible to make up for the absence of natural disasters in this dear land of ours,” he added.
