Dear Editor,
The claim by George Gomes, Lieutenant Colonel (retired) and President, Guyana Veterans Legions, in his letter `Votes by Disciplined Services personnel’, Stabroek News, May 30, 2020, is cause for concern and points to the need for GECOM to take a proactive stand in countering such falsehoods being perpetuated which, if not addressed now, could have serious consequences should the PPP be declared the winner of the elections after the recount is over. Stabroek News Editor-in-Chief must be commended for the note appended to the letter from the Lieutenant Colonel (retired) pointing out that this letter makes “a highly irresponsible statement”..
In his letter, Mr Gomes claims that “PPP agents did not stamp the Disciplined Services ballots, as they were required to” and “over eight thousand (8,000) Disciplined Services votes were not stamped in the PPP strongholds”. The Disciplined Services voice “is crying out loud against the effort by the PPP to have GECOM not count their votes in the current recount, because they are unstamp-ed”. These are serious charges which should not be taken lightly as they could have undesired influences on members of the Disciplined Services who are expected to serve loyally any government that is democratically elected.
Timothy Jonas, ANUG’s Chairman, in his letter `Disciplined Services must not be misled, their votes have counted’, Stabroek News, May 31, 2020, has debunked these falsehoods being peddled by Gomes and others. In his letter Mr Jonas writes “I am alarmed that Col. Gomes would claim that ‘over 8,000 DS votes were not stamped.’ This is an untruth. So far, there have been only 2673 rejected ballots, and only a minority of those would be as a result of lack of a stamp. Where does Gomes get his number from? I am alarmed that Col. Gomes would add to his lie by blaming imaginary non-stamping on ‘PPP agents’ and locating it in ‘PPP strongholds’. More untruths, but incendiary untruths. The duty to stamp is on the Presiding Officers (PO’s), and from all evidence so far, those PO’s have kept that duty.”
GECOM needs to recognize the seriousness of such false claims and have an effective and timely strategy to communicate the facts in its possession thereby correcting such misinformation before it is too late. If GECOM does not adequately manage its communication with timely factual information, it will be culpable if its final declaration leads to unrest.
One way or the other, the future of Guyana rests in the hands of GECOM. More importantly, with the equal split of the Commissioners between the APNU+AFC and the PPP, the future lies in the hands of the Chairperson. Like her predecessors, it is she who will be remembered by posterity. It is said ‘if you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes accepted as truth’. One hopes that finally the Chairperson will demonstrate the leadership needed to prevent untruths from taking hold and becoming accepted as truth.
Yours faithfully,
Harry Hergash
