Dear Editor,
In a letter by me in the Stabroek News dated 3rd June, 2020 and captioned `Recount is not about simple numbers but a more complex and complete evaluation,’ I presented factual evidence to buttress the claim as captured in the headline of said letter in response to the effrontery of the European Union Ambassador Fernando Ponz Canto suggesting, inspite of the very glaring evidence of electoral fraud and corruption discovered in every region that, “ it was impossible to cheat”.
It was disappointing after presenting irrefutable evidence extracted from an easily accessible public document found on the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) website, outlining the legal defining characteristics of the recount that I was forced to respond to a misleading editorial commentary to reiterate, “The gazetted Order of 4th May 2020 speaks to a National Recount and this specifies areas of particular focus for review. It is not your call, my call or any other but GECOM to stipulate at this point (or at any point) what the recount focus is and what therefore must be reported on. Clearly this key issue has been missed. Efforts by many to misrepresent the Recount is noted” (3rd June).
Above comment was made in response to the misleading, “Editor-in-Chief’s note: The so-called anomalies raised by APNU+AFC agents in these observation reports have no basis. They are fishing expeditions. One of the most egregious claims by APNU+AFC was the supposed non-stamping of the ballots of the Disciplined Services which Mr Lewis interestingly avoids mentioning. This is a recount, not an audit or an election petition. The GECOM Chair is duty-bound to declare the recount result and to do so expeditiously.”
This seemingly simple editorial note is an act of suppression. It is misleading and an attempt not to acknowledge the very profound aspects of the Order that determine the nature of the recount, designed and agreed to by GECOM as a means of ascertaining credibility. The readership is reminded that it was Anil Nandlall, former PPP/C Attorney General, who opined that “fraud once committed makes everything a nullity…ab initio”. The Opposition having agreed to the specifics of the Order is now changing its voice and so are those specific international agents whom we must now call international dictators espousing a vulgar diplomacy.
The Editor-in-Chief and the newspaper were wrong. Not wrong to editorialise, for that is the prerogative of ownership. Wrong is their use of editorial power to misrepresent public information. In so doing they fool a large cross section of the Guyanese community and world at large. I submit this is not accidental. It represents glaring support of an organised campaign to discredit certain views and the persons who make them thus making them less than credible in the eyes of the reading public.
It sets out the pillars of destabilisation of the truth of the 2020 Elections and the recount which the opposition and international dictators are seeking to use as a foundation for clandestine machinations at regime change by any means necessary. I again remind readers of the Organisation of American States’ (OAS) role in the Bolivia story and what is taking place politically in the countries that form the Guianas oil basin. Venezuela, Guyana and most recently the exposure of OAS ignorance and/or disregard for Surinamese laws.
There is an organised effort by several actors in and out of Guyana who speak from the same script, to present an impression of many sources, in support of the opposition and denouncing GECOM. It is not lost on a large section of the Guyanese community that there is political warfare waging between the contesting parties of the 2020 elections. It is also obvious that some mainstream media have formed an alliance to influence domestic and international understanding of Guyana’s politics and electoral reality. There is serious concern about said role in these delicate time. Only time will tell the fruit Guyana will reap from what has been sowed.
Yours faithfully,
Lincoln Lewis
Editor-in-Chief’s note: From the very inception of the agreement brokered by CARICOM Chair, Prime Minister Mottley, the only task to be undertaken was a recount following the controversy surrounding the tabulation of District Four. Only District Four should have been recounted but this was then expanded to the entire country. A recount is what the country was promised and that is what will be.
The construction of the recount order to include matters extraneous to the recount is another example of the high-level treachery within GECOM to find ways to steal the election and defy the will of the people. Even so, nothing presented by APNU+AFC in the “observation reports” during the recount is remotely credible. GECOM should simply move on to the declaration of the result.
The public is also taking note of all of those participating in and supporting this perfidious attempt to rig the elections. Their deeds will be well remembered.
