Dear Editor,
The Madame Chairperson of GECOM may still be entitled to her sense of integrity. But these March elections belong to the electors, and the integrity of the ballots cast trumps the integrity of the Madame Chairperson.
As such, the electors through their party representatives must be allowed to aptly participate in a recount. If this right is refused or reduced, it would in effect dig a hole into which the integrity of the ballots shall be interred.
Further, the opposition parties should be cautious not to facilitate a recount with their participation if the Madame Chairperson’s sense of integrity insists on using certain senior members of GECOM, who have publicly demonstrated their complicity in subverting the tabulation process.
Finally, a recount ought to be made visible in real time to the world, particularly if foreign observers are now (indirectly) barred from being on-site, unless they first submit to 2 weeks of quarantine not at a hotel but at a government facility, upon entry into Guyana, even if they show no Covid-19 symptoms. Strange request.
These are, arguably, but a few prerequisites for a transparent recount. The absence of any is an invitation to a pariah state.
Yours faithfully,
Rakesh Rampertab