The Guyanese population had almost lost its sense of the absurd after the egregious events of the last two-and-a-half months, but our headlines last Monday demonstrated that there were still things which could leave mouths agape. From that lead story the electorate learned that APNU+AFC was alleging that “clear and unmistakable patterns of irregularities, discrepancies and worse have emerged” in relation to the election of March 2. This astonishing asseveration was made in a press release following the completion of only five days of the recount process.
There were “countless” instances of dead people being recorded as voting exclusively in PPP strongholds, said the release, as well as innumerable cases of persons who voted despite the fact they had migrated long ago and were not present in Guyana on March 2. Then there were yet more “countless” instances of citizens who had not uplifted their ID cards from Gecom for many years, but who still voted in PPP stronghold areas although no corresponding Oaths of Identity had been found in the ballot boxes. In addition there were claims that one person had voted multiple times, votes for other parties had been recorded for the PPP, poll books had been found to be missing and ballots cast for the coalition had been deemed spoilt. In short, the catalogue of aberrations had an echo of the fraudulent acts associated with the PNC in its rigging heyday between 1968 and 1985.
The fact that only a fraction of the boxes had been counted at this point did not discomfit the coalition one iota. “What is emerging, even at this early stage,” they thundered, “is that there was a systematic effort by the PPP on Election Day to corrupt the electoral process and to fraudulently cause votes to be registered for that party while seeking to disqualify votes for the APNU+AFC Coalition.
“This is an attack on the credibility of the electoral process by a single political party – the PPP – and its agents and co-conspirators.”
This latest claim by APNU+AFC has been repeated by some of their other spokesmen since, most notably by President David Granger’s unofficial chief aide, Mr Joseph Harmon, in his irascible response to Mr Bruce Golding’s electoral report to the OAS. Even government appointed Commissioner, Mr Vincent Alexander, was prepared to entertain the complaints, although he was infinitely more cautious about the conclusions he drew from them. “Any electoral process, even if you have wrongdoing, the precedent has always been to look at the magnitude of the wrongdoing to see if that magnitude could affect the results,” he was quoted as saying.
As for the substance of the allegations, various commentators in addition to this newspaper’s reports have pointed out that where the “numerous” instances of missing poll books were concerned, Gecom had made no report of this. There are, in addition, various safeguards in place preventing multiple voting, which would be implied in the case of people who had migrated, but who had allegedly voted. And as for the dearly departed having voted, it would mean that someone who had voted before was able to transform themselves to look like the dead person.
In any case, APNU+AFC had 2,339 party agents in the field scrutinising the proceedings at every polling station, along with local observers and often foreign observers as well. How these “countless” supposed irregularities escaped the notice of all of them, including those instances where people voted without taking any Oath of Identity, must remain one of the mysteries of the hemisphere. As it is, no evidence has been adduced in support of the vast majority of these complaints, lending further support to the impression that they are little more than delaying tactics, if not something more sinister.
It has to be said that following the election the coalition in concert with all the other parties and the observer missions had characterised the poll as free and fair. Even the de facto President was in agreement with that assessment as late as earlier this month. But what is so astounding is not the fact that the coalition has changed position on the credibility of the poll itself, and has, by implication, admitted to the total incompetence of the majority of its party agents, not one of whom raised any objections about irregularities on March 2, but rather the fact that its new stance cannot be reconciled with its previous one.
When the governing party embarked on its campaign against the poll, it contended that it had won, and the number presented by Mr Clairmont Mingo demonstrated this. That notwithstanding, the coalition has always declined to present the Statements of Poll in its possession for the scrutiny of the public, although the PPP/C has made those in its hands accessible. But APNU+AFC maintained these did not reflect the genuine figures.
So after starting off by saying the PPP/C had rigged the results, they now say that party rigged the election. Exactly what are they asking their supporters to believe? That the PPP rigged the election in order that the coalition could win? Or is it they are insinuating that the PPP did such an incompetent job of rigging the election that they then had to rig the results to rectify matters?
It is all too ludicrous.
Logic, it appears, is not a major consideration for the de facto government; staying in power is. And in that cause, any inconsistency, illogicality, or outright contradiction can be embraced. Since clearly the Statements of Recount if allowed to go to completion will show a high level of correspondence with the SoPs in opposition and observer hands, the coalition has resorted to their back-up plan, i.e. to insist the entire election was an exercise in fraud on the part of the PPP/C.
If it is their aim to get the poll declared void it is not obvious how this could be accomplished, since most of the issues they are raising would normally form the basis of an elections petition after a result has been declared. And it would appear they do not intend to have a result declared which does not leave them in power. If the recount confirms that APNU+AFC has lost the election, it would be hard to see how Gecom could fail to issue a declaration based on the Statements of Recount.
It may be, of course, that the coalition is banking on making the recount process so unreasonably protracted with their queries, that the Caricom team will not be able to stay, or alternatively, that they decide to intervene with some Covid-19 excuse to interrupt it. Since there would be international sanctions following this, it may be they feel that they could eventually mitigate things by offering to negotiate for a new election, Maduro-style, at some point in the unforeseen future given the coronavirus situation.
It might be noted, for example, that despite an application to the Covid-19 Task Force from Gecom for an increase in the number of workstations in order to speed up the pace of the recount, there has been no response as yet. This is despite the fact that the commission has only processed 479 of 2,339 ballot boxes as of Friday. It would seem that expedition is not in the forefront of Mr Harmon’s mind. It might be added that the administration has refused permission for the Carter Center to enter the country to observe the recount, citing Caricom’s role in the process and the closure of airports owing to the Covid-19 pandemic as its excuse. This is despite the fact that the Center had indicated it would make itself compliant with the necessary health requirements and that the de facto government has made arrangements to accommodate various private flights in the interim. The issue is clearly the Carter Center per se, not the coronavirus.
What all of this suggests is that President Granger is not an observer to events for which his party alone should be held to account; he himself is responsible, and lurking in the shadows will not change that. He can, for example, instruct Mr Harmon to allow in the Carter Center on the same conditions as the Caricom team; he can instruct Mr Harmon to increase the number of recount workstations; he can instruct his party to stop playing games and cease the nonsense about the PPP/C rigging the election; and he can also instruct them to stop raising all these fatuous queries and allow the recount process to proceed. He placed Mr Harmon and other ex-army personnel in charge of the Covid-19 Task Force, and he can stop Mr Harmon from extending himself into political affairs as he did in his diatribe against Mr Bruce Golding. All of that comes within his purview, and does not constitute interference in Gecom.
But most of all he could stop treating citizens like fools, expecting them to swallow any absurdity thrown at them.
