Over the last week of the recount process, APNU+AFC has published a document claiming that the March 2020 elections process has been marred by ‘clear and unmistakable patterns of irregularities, discrepancies and worse’, e.g. dead and migrated voters. (‘APNU+AFC alleges ‘clear pattern’ of contamination of elections – following day five of recount’; SN: 11/05/2020). This claim does not surprise me as I have for some time been arguing that for many years the PPP and the PNC have been consistent in breaking fundamental principles of conducting free and fair elections.
Of the PPP I wrote, “It is universally accepted that a bloated list is a danger to free and fair elections, but rather than fixing the problem that developed and was maintained during its period in office, the PPP set about its usual propaganda offensive and fought tooth and nail efforts to clean the list. First it argued that the list was not bloated and when that became difficult to maintain, its supporters began claiming that a clean list is not of paramount importance. Thus, Mr. Gerry Gouveia, while not denying that the present electoral list is bloated, pointed to the many other security features of the electoral process to conclude that, ‘What is most important is that no person can(not) vote for another person’” (Guyana is a rigging field. SN: 05/02/2020).
Having been weaned on the saying ‘stricter the government wiser the population’, I was surprised that reasonable Guyanese would believe that a bloated list would have been constructed and maintained by our two ethnic parties if it was not practically useful, but here again we find the influence of self-interest and ethnicity! The fact that international observers certify an election as free and fair is no certainty that it has been so. International observers have been known to be complicit with undemocratic regimes but more to the point when they, a few of whom have been here in Guyana, declared the Kenyan elections of 2017 to be creditable the Kenyan Supreme Court later found sufficient irregularities to annul the reelection of President Uhuru Kenyatta. (‘Lessons from the Kenyan elections,’ SN: 06/09/2017).
This column has always prioritised justice and if what the coalition claims to have unearthed is true – I believe it is – a government elected in such conditions cannot be considerable credible and certainly would not ‘reflect the will of this country’s citizens’ (US just wants result that reflects will of people -State Dep’t official says of Guyana elections. SN: 11/05/2020). However, as stated last week, we are being told to forget such illegalities if they exist: our task at this stage is not to question but to simply count the votes in the boxes, hand the government over to the winning party and then proceed by way of an elections petition to remedy the situation! This is quite laughable, for over the years these very parties have behaved in a manner that would make such a decision unlikely if not insane! Both the PNC and the PPP have refused to bring and complete elections petitions in a timely manner, so what chance is there of the PNC taking this course? In any case, as I understand it, elections petitions can only be legally brought when a winner of the elections has been declared and no such declaration has yet been made!
The PNC has been manipulating the elections simply to stay in the game: to win a plurality and a majority. Given our plurality constitution in a free and fair election the PPP is likely to win the presidency but cannot be certain of an overall majority. The result will be a hung parliament much like the one which presented so many difficulties after the 2011 elections. Its goal is to return to government with the capability to do as it pleases and using all manner of half-baked rationalizations and downright falsehoods (Kaieteur News, 08/05/2020), it has closed its mind to all sensible alternatives that suggest it will have to share governmental authority.
These parties are in an ethnic battle, and the result of finding oneself in such a struggle is that no holds are barred. In such conditions there could be no gentlemen’s agreement: pushed to the limits and having the capacity, the other side will be prepared to do what is necessary to hold on to government. Surprise, surprise: the PNC now appears poised to do just that and what can the PPP do?
After claiming that it is impossible for illegal voting to take place on elections day the PNC must realise that the PPP would be in a very difficult place if it now claims that the PNC has utilised the bloated electoral list! Thus, pushed to the limits after the Mingo Region 4 gambit was stymied it is almost costless for the PNC to find and publish dirt that its former co-conspirator has manipulated the bloat. In this kind of scenario political morality has been severely diminished if not disappeared. Both parties have undermined the right of Guyanese to choose who governs them. But we could expect that the PPP will now attempt to do what it does best: propagandistically keep appealing to ethnic sympathies and the law!
That said, on my assessment, the PNC regime cannot hope to remain in government without placing on the table a firm commitment and timetable for the establishment of a fair national, regional and internationally umpired democratic consensual regime. Let the PPP refuse to participate and the chips will fall where they may, because in today’s world no marginal majority can hope to gain international support to force its will upon a substantial minority!
