General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday declared that no matter the ruling of the High Court on the matter of a recount, the tabulation of the votes cast on March 2 will remain fraudulent.
“Court ruling or no court ruling the results are fraudulent,” he stressed during his weekly press conference at Freedom House.
For much of the press conference Jagdeo responded to claims and statements made during an APNU+AFC conference earlier that day. He accused the party of trying to hang on to power at all costs and emphasized that he will make sure they are unable to govern the country.
“They’ll have no access to money from bi-lateral or multi-lateral sources, they’ll face individual sanctions, [and] we’ll have restrictions on our exports. It will harm Guyana but it will also make them see the folly of their ways,” Jagdeo said.
He acknowledged that the coalition has been making efforts to change the narrative of “fraudulent elections” within diplomatic circles and especially at the United States Capitol of Washington D.C.
“They have been busy putting people to work trying to create the narrative of this has something to do with the court and with some ethnic problem we have in Guyana,” he said before declaring the government delusion as “the whole world has seen that these elections are fraudulent and nothing is going to change that.”
“They are fighting a losing battle. People see this as an attempt to grab power,” he stressed before calling out President David Granger for alleged “duplicity” in his reaction to calls for sanctions.
Several members of the US Government have threatened the Granger administration with sanctions if the President were to be sworn in based on the results declared on March 14.
Jagdeo has welcomed these sanctions and declared that he will also be contacting multi-national lending agencies to demand that they to sanction Guyana.
In response the coalition labelled him and all those “smaller parties” who have supported the action as “anti-national”.
Jagdeo however reminded that in 2014, Granger had written to the international community calling for sanctions if the President Donald Ramotar did not end the prorogation of parliament.
“He called for sanctions to end the prorogation now he doesn’t want sanctions when (they are) trying to steal a whole election,” the opposition leader scoffed.
He claimed that only the APNU+AFC can prevent sanctions by allowing a recount to happen so that the rightful president can be sworn in.
Jagdeo further argued that the coalition’s claim that it will rely on the law and adhere to the decisions of the court are irrelevant as the court case doesn’t change the results of the elections, they are still fraudulent.
“A president sworn in on those results will still illegitimate,” he argued adding that if Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield submitted to the Commission a report including results the international community has deemed fraudulent it will be up to the conscience of the Chair and Commissioners to decide whether they will be part of the fraud.
