As he called for a swift declaration of the March 2nd General Elections using the recount votes which he said is inevitable, CARICOM Chairman and Prime Minister of St. Vin-cent and the Grenadines (SVG) Ralph Gonsalves yesterday warned that subverting the democratic process will be met with disapproval of the regional body.
“Those who want to subvert, anyone who wants to subvert the broad daylight free and fair elections would have to face the disapproval [of] the people of the Caribbean Community and the leaders of the Caribbean Community. CARICOM has already decided that. I am not speaking out of turn. CARICOM has made these declarations,” Gonsalves told the Stabroek News in an exclusive interview via telephone yesterday.
Gonsalves, who was appointed as Chairman of CARICOM this month, was one of four heads of states who visited Guyana under the leadership of then Chairperson, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley and helped broker the agreement for the recount.
Lamenting the process which has lasted for more than four months, Gonsalves said that not only CARICOM, but several other nations have already expressed their views that the recount votes must be used for the declaration and that it is time to move forward.
“What is happening in Guyana is like the soap opera ‘Days of Our Lives’, you can miss several episodes and you come back and the story line is the same. You need to count the votes, count the votes as the CCJ says; the votes which were tabulated for the recount, which were the votes. Not that which was messed up by a gentleman in Region 4, but that which was in fact the scores counted at the various polling stations, and which CARICOM supervised, which came as a consequence out of the arrangement made to do the recount.”
“This soap opera has to come to an end and democracy has to prevail. It is self-evident,” he added.
The SVG PM echoed most of what he had had said in a statement earlier this month, that the entire world knows that a small clique is trying to hijack Guyana’s elections.
But he vows that under his chairmanship of CARICOM he will continue to ensure that rulership of nations is based on the votes of its people and that their voices are heard though this medium.
“You would have read my personal editorial on Guyana and the elections, Stabroek [News] published it. That is my position then and that is my position now. In fact, my position now is the same but reinforced,” he declared.
“I don’t feel frustrated. It only recommits me day by day, for us to ensure in CARICOM that we have free and fair elections and genuine electoral democracy, in Guyana, in Jamaica, in SVG, in Barbados… everywhere. Because the question of free and fair elections is a great cause and great causes have never been won by doubtful men and women,” he added.
He reminded that immediately after E-Day and even the days leading up to voting, there had been no complaint lodged by any party that the process was flawed. “When the five CARICOM heads went to Guyana, everybody we met, everybody, everyone in the political parties, officials, everybody, they said that, including at the highest level of the country that the elections were free and fair.”
Further, he added. “They said what happened before the elections, the registration and things went well. On elections day, they said, everything went well. And the only issue, and the critical issue, was counting the votes.”
Noting that the CARICOM delegation visited Guyana following the beginning of the impasse which incurred because an attempt was by Region 4 Chairman Clairmont Mingo to make a fraudulent declaration in favour of the APNU+AFC, he said that both sides agreed to the recount.
And when the current government objected to the results of that recount, Gonsalves said that a court process was allowed for the validity of those objections at the time to be decided on. Both Guyana’s lower and high courts ruled and the matter went to the region’s highest court – the Caribbean Court of Justice.
“Now we had a recount, properly verified process. The CCJ has said that the GECOM must proceed and do its work in accordance with the law and to take these votes, which have been provided by this recount process. Isn’t that what all the observers and everybody are saying? I thought the CCJ pronounced clearly. Every-body, including the highest court for Guyana can’t be wrong in this case, save in particular this case, a narrow group of persons, who want to deny the proper counting process. The CCJ gave an answer to that, authoritatively, conclusively, that there is a process called an elections petition to address those [concerns],” he said.
Narrow category
“That is why there is a judicial process by way of an elections petition. No executive can simply declare your vote not to be a valid vote, except in the narrow category which is defined in the law and what is called a spoiled ballot or rejected ballot, and the CCJ rejected that. Say, where you are supposed to mark an X, you mark an X where you not supposed to mark it, it is a spoilt ballot or you write up on the ballot and it is rejected, those are the normal categories. But when you are talking about fraud and impersonation and all those things, those are matters for an elections petition. And of course, if there is fraud and so forth, for the criminal process to proceed. That is the position persons with an independent view have said,” he added.
The longest serving Head of State of CARICOM rubbished criticisms that his vocal stance on the issue is personal and because he is friends with Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo.
“I have an interest to see the Charter of Civil Society which speaks to the question of democratic free and fair elections. That is what I want to see. That is what CARICOM wants to see, and this is not a narrow Guyana issue, this is a Caribbean community issue. The revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and civil society they are.
“I don’t have any metaphoric dog hunting in the race you know. I have an interest in democracy. I consider myself a friend of David Granger. I mean I know Bharrat, I know David,” he acknowledged.
Asked if the relationship shared with both Granger and Jagdeo were quantitatively of the same strength, Gonsalves said, “I have never put them and measure them, but I can tell you I have good personal relations with David Granger and I have good personal relations with Bharrat Jagdeo. Oh that is nonsense, absolute nonsense. Whatever people want to say they will say you know, but that doesn’t mean that it has any weight or any credence.”
He said that personal attacks on him are to distract from the issue here but warned that it will not stop his or CARICOM’s position that democracy must prevail.
That democratic process he says will soon be realised. “I come from a farming community and we have a saying, is not long rope is hang cattle. Is short rope. No matter how long the rope is, it has to come short at some point. Every rope has an end you know,” he said.
Lamenting what Guyana’s citizenry has had to endure over the past four months and with regard to abuse of the judicial system where a number of cases continue to stall the delay of the declaration, Gonsalves had this to say.
“It is overbearing and it is long and I was very impressed with the formulation of the Acting Chief Justice whose judgment was appealed, who said look you can’t have multiple people coming with the same applications to the court. Basically you are relitigating the same issues. The issue of res judicata, you can’t have the process of the court being abused, you can’t have it being vexatious and frivolous. These are well established principles.”
To Guyana, the CARICOM Chairman urges patience and peace as he believes that a declaration in favour of the electorate will soon be made.
“We will see what happen as the process unfolds. I think we are coming bit by bit to the end game. So what I would say at the moment is, let us remain at peace and at calm. Let us have patience and just recite for the moment, what the evangelicals say. Day by day sweet Jesus,” he advised.
“We will see. I understand that the court of appeal – my advice from the persons who advise me on these matters – have said there is a stay. Let us see what happens tomorrow [today],” he added.
