Trinidad-based lawyer and former United States (US) consular officer Randy Depoo yesterday presented a petition consisting of some 6,500 signatures to the United States Embassy here in Guyana calling for personal sanctions to be imposed against twelve members of the APNU+AFC coalition and the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) for allegedly attempting to “rig” the March 2 general and regional elections.
The petition, which was addressed to the US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, was submitted online a week ago. Up to last Friday, the signatories consisted of Guyanese from around the world. The petition remains open.
The petition, according to Depoo, was submitted on behalf of a movement called “Save Democracy in Guyana”, which was set up to restore Democracy in Guyana. Once a new government is sworn in, Depoo explained, the group will be dissolved.
“The fact of the matter is that we are trying to exhaust local means democratically but we have a regime, a dictatorship right now, which is frustrating. So we are resorting to going through the Secretary of State and asking him to impose sanctions on these people,” Depoo said.
“Usually personal sanctions involves cancellation of visas for the individual names and their family members and revocation of their right to ever enter the United States, freezing of all bank accounts that is held by them in the United States and profit,” Depoo said. Guyana held its elections on March 2.
Depoo noted that although the elections were monitored by a host of observer groups, including the Carter Center, the European Union (EU) and the Commonwealth, the results are yet to be officially declared.
“The evidence is right here in the air. It’s 60 days now almost since we have had elections and the United States government has expressed grave reservations [about] what’s going on in Guyana. The British Government, the Canadian Government… We have the Commonwealth nations, the OAS, CARICOM and the Carter Center, among a host of other people… So the condemnation of what’s going on here, which is basically… the attempted thieving of the election, is universal. … Now they have started to create what they call a new narrative, accusing the opposition of trying to frustrate the country when everybody knows—you have to be blind, deaf and tasteless to not know what’s going on,” Depoo explained.
He said the movement hopes to achieve a “rapid” resolution of the current political crisis in Guyana so that a new Government can be sworn in at the soonest. “We hope to achieve a rapid resolution of this impasse and the rightful winner of the election be sworn into office, whether it be the PPP, the PNC, APNU, AFC or one of the smaller parties, whoever wins. Our objective is not to determine the winner.” Depoo stated.
“We have lost two months of democracy in Guyana right now. Somebody has to pay a price for that. So whether tomorrow they start the recount process and by the end of the week they declare a winner, it doesn’t change the fact that there was an attempt to steal the election. A very deliberate, not so clever attempt,” he added.
According to Depoo, the “Save Democracy in Guyana movement” has no faith in the recount. “How could we have faith when the results are known….both the PPP and the Coalition knew who win the election and then they [APNU+AFC] realise they got caught with their pants down. So they gone through with this very deliberate, amateurish process of trying to stall…..It is a very deliberate attempt to basically conceal the statements of poll and come up with bogus results. So how could we have faith in a system like this,” he said.
He further explained that the group was formed to voice the concerns of the frustration that persons have with GECOM and the government.
“They only exist to give expression to the frustration of the Guyanese people. When a new Government is sworn in, this group dissolves. It’s gone. There is no hidden agenda. This is basically to promote democracy in Guyana. To hold accountable, the people who are trying to frustrate democracy in Guyana,” Depoo said.
The petition was handed over to the US embassy here in Guyana yesterday morning in mail form.
