After witnessing what could have been an overturning of democracy here, Canada has pledged further support to electoral reforms and is awaiting the government’s response, outgoing High Commissioner Lilian Chatterjee yesterday announced as she spoke about the events in the aftermath of the March 2nd polling, including a meeting where former president David Granger was told that Western countries would not accept the now discredited initial declaration that was intended to keep him in power.
The Canadian envoy, who is leaving Guyana shortly to take up the post of High Commissioner to Barbados from January, said that in her 17-year career as a diplomat she has never witnessed an elections filled with trauma and frustration as she did here and hopes to never again see a repeat at any of her future postings.
“Canada spent Cdn$1 million on your electoral process. We did three things. We funded the Carter Center. The chairperson needed elections expertise because she was new to this role… so we offered Jean Pierre Kingsley [former Chief Electoral Officer of Elections Canada] … and we supported the CARICOM team,” Chatterjee yesterday told Sunday Stabroek in an exit interview at her Bel Air Gardens residence.
Referring to the five-month ordeal, which she alluded to at Friday’s launch of the Canada-Guyana Chamber of Com-merce as being part of the “bad and ugly” experiences here, Chatterjee was asked if Canada was prepared to assist in ensuring that future elections are free of the trauma experienced by so many.
“We have offered support in terms of the way forward. We made that offer to the President. We have made that offer to the Attorney General and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Gail Teixeira. We had several meetings to discuss and we wait for their response. They know what we have offered and we wait for them to let us know if they want us to proceed,” she added.
When reflecting on events in the immediate aftermath of the March 2nd general elections, Chatterjee related, “I was not optimistic or negative. I was frustrated, as were so many people. Why was it taking so long? It shouldn’t have taken five months. It was frustrating; all the legal ramblings and so on,” she said. Chatterjee had famously dismissed one of the ensuing legal proceedings as frivolous.
GECOM Chairperson Claudette Singh came in for high commendation from the Canadian diplomat, who said that she always had faith in her.
“No one trusted her. She was not liked by any of the political parties. I was quite worried for her because she had death threats and a lot of that ugliness was directed towards her as well as my ambassador colleagues. The person who should really get credit is Claudette Singh,” Chatterjee said, while also crediting Guyana’s judicial system, which she said “worked in the end…It was severely tested; that judicial system, but it worked out. Democracy was tested but it prevailed,” she added.
Chatterjee’s three years of service – in a country where she adores the people, the weather and hinterland – was marred by the scathing and disparaging criticisms she faced from some APNU+AFC supporters and its leadership; criticisms that she said were all founded on untruths.
Of all the foreign envoys here, she believes she was particularly targeted through a campaign to spread vicious lies aimed at discrediting her work.
Ashmins
She was asked to explain what, from her view, transpired on March 5th, when she had attempted to enter Chairperson Singh’s office in the Ashmins Building and which saw reports being circulated that she had broken the door to the office.
She recounted the night of March 4th for a better context of the events and noted that on that night District Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo was not at the office and had left a pregnant staffer in charge. “The count was taking place and they had done just about fifty percent of the count for Region 4. In front of all the observers, political parties and late at night, say around 10 PM, they decided to call off the count because the woman in charge was pregnant. She was exhausted and they needed to halt the count that night. Mingo was not there,” she said.
It was agreed that the count would stop for the day and resume on the morning of the 5th of March.
The next morning she was asked by former Chief Electoral Officer of Elections Canada, Kingsley, to go to GECOM as she was accredited and to observe what was happening.
She said that she arrived and while District 4 workers turned up for duty, the count had not started for the day. Staff, according to Chatterjee, informed that they were waiting on Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield’s instructions to begin.
Chatterjee then went upstairs to Singh’s office and Singh told her that she [Singh] was there that morning for a GECOM meeting and not to resume the count. She told Singh of what was happening on the ground floor. By this time, Lowenfield had arrived and the High Commissioner said she went to talk to him.
“Keith Lowenfield arrived and I said [to him], ‘They have not resumed the count. they are waiting for you.’ And he rushed past me and went into his office and shut the door,” she related.
“My other ambassador colleagues arrived. The UK, US and not sure if EU was at that point. We were just milling outside the CEO’s office when he [Lowenfield] came out ten minutes later, saying that there is a bomb threat and we all have to evacuate,” she added.
The foreign envoys proceeded downstairs but did not go outside, according to Chatterjee, who said that they did not feel the threat was real. As a result, they stayed in the vicinity of the counting room door.
“We were right at the Region 4 room, which was right at the entrance of Ashmins. A police superintendent that was in charge came in and asked people to leave. We were watching him. They brought fire drill people to check floor by floor. I remembered saying to the superintendent that the building is surrounded by police. You can’t get in without showing ID . So how was it that there would be a bomb when the police were there. It would mean that the police allowed the bomb to come in. Anyway, they went through the whole exercise, cleared it and the whole exercise was fine. We never left because there was no need to leave. We were expecting the count to resume,” she said.
“The Chair and the GECOM commissioners evacuated and we waited for her [Singh] to come back and she did. She spoke with us and said that she did not know where Keith Lowenfield is and said, `he is not returning my calls’. The count had not restarted. We were saying the count needs to continue,” Chatterjee added.
Singh returned when given the all-clear and went to speak to the former heads of the elections commission of Jamaica and India.
“We suggested she speak to them and she did. That was a closed door meeting. We were outside. After that, GECOM commissioners arrived and she proceeded with her GECOM commissioners’ meeting. By that time all kinds of people were coming into the building. People who did not have accreditation were there and it was just packed. Journalists were there. Politicians from PPP, APNU quite a lot of people. At one point Mingo just suddenly appeared and he started to proceed with the numbers for Region 4, which [were not verified] and he started making a declaration and the count had not resumed. We were outside where Claudette Singh was meeting with the GECOM commissioners and she had a security person outside the door. I asked him, ‘You think I can let her know what is happening?’ And he said yes. I still did not go in. I knocked on the glass door, she saw me and motioned with her hand to open the door. So I came in – not inside but to the entrance of the door. I said to her ‘Madam Chair, Mingo is making a declaration for Region 4’. Nobody said anything and then I closed the door and they continued with their meeting,” the High Commissioner related.
‘Circus’
In the meantime, there was bedlam in the building as persons began shouting down Mingo and declaring that what he was doing was wrong. “He continued with the declaration and everyone was saying, `No! No! No!’ It was a circus, frankly. It was amazing,” she said.
At some point, the PPP/C-noiminated commissioners left the GECOM meeting and came out to the crescendo of people shouting. “They left the meeting to come out to find out what was happening and they were very upset.”
Simultaneously, Commonwealth Secretary General, Baroness Patricia Scotland called by phone to speak with Singh as the Commonwealth Observer team had already reported to her what was happening. “After that call, Chairperson Singh went upstairs to her office. We sort of had like an impasse. Mingo finished his declaration, he went back upstairs, and then he was escorted by police. At some point later on he left. This was what was happening and it was really quite a shock to see all of this playing out,” she related.
Earlier that day, the international observers had been summoned to a meeting with then Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Karen Cummings suggested that their credentials could be withdrawn. The Head of the Commonwealth team, late former Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur was “deeply offended”, Chatterjee noted, and said it was “unacceptable”. Cummings “half retracted” and was told to leave because it was inappropriate and she left.
A meeting with then President Granger was then requested by the Western envoys and when the group met him they told him that Mingo’s declaration would not be accepted and that if it was there would be consequences. They left his office and put out a joint statement.
“We had also indicated to the President this would impact his legacy and none of our countries would accept this. So he was well aware and there would be consequences,” Chatterjee said.
‘Target’
She said that on the 6th of March, the Western envoys asked for a meeting with Singh because overnight it was rumoured that she had fainted and was not well. It was at that time Chatterjee said that she became aware of the lies being peddled about her and the criticisms and untruths would only mushroom.
“That is when we learned someone said I had kicked down her door. I wasn’t even in the building at that point. I don’t know what was going on back in Ashmins [that night]. It was really quite shocking for people to make up lies about what I had done. And then months later, one of the APNU GECOM commissioners claimed that I had ‘barged in’ to the meeting, which I had not done. There were others; the American Ambassador was right beside me and she saw what I did. She can attest to that and others can attest to what I did. They decided to come up with a false narrative about my involvement and nobody else, just me. I was the target. I find it interesting that I was going to be the target of their false narrative,” she lamented.
“They then dredged up from a year before Charrandass Persaud and the defeat of their government in the no-confidence vote and at the time they had said that I was behind it. I wasn’t in the country. Actually President Granger accepted that I was not involved. And he was very gracious with me. President Granger has always been gracious with me. The fact that the government [fell in the no-confidence motion saw] heightened tension between Canada and Guyana. But then things calmed down. President Granger came to our Canada Day event in July, we resumed our collaboration with government and it was if everything was normal. That was until March 5th and March 6th, when they decided they would bring all this up again,” she added.
Asked if she felt it had anything to do with her Indian ancestry, she replied “Well, yes, because they kept saying I was pro-PPP. I am not. Canada does not take sides. I have said all along that we support all governments as long as they are democratically elected. In 2015, APNU was democratically elected and we respected them. All we wanted was the will of the people be respected. It is kind of absurd of them to think of Canada [that way]. We don’t intervene in trying to pick a winner. It is not what we do. At that point what we were asking for was to have the [verification of District 4] resume,” she added.
It is to this end that Chatterjee stressed that Guyana needs to ensure that there is never another bitter elections like the last.
Canada will help with electoral reforms, she repeated and said that in addition, constitutional reform “needs to happen but all the political parties need to be involved”.
As the country heals from the trauma of the last elections, she said that all parties have to set aside political differences and work together.
The Irfaan Ali-led PPP/C government has already, according to Chatterjee, “made a commitment to it”. “They talk about wanting an inclusive government and I hope they live up to that commitment because it is very, very important,” she said.
Pleased that Ali has organized a meeting of all former Presidents for December 15th, Chatterjee believes it is a step towards setting the scope for the inclusivity that is needed.
“The country needs to move forward and you cannot move forward with just one side. Everybody needs to come together and move forward together for the good of the people,” she stressed.
She said that constitutional reform should also be addressed and stated that if Georgetown reached out to Ottawa for help she believes that it would be given.
But the PPP/C has for now its focus on electoral reform. “They have not made a specific request at this point. I think they are more focused on the electoral reform at this point, but I am sure if they put in a request to help we would be there to help,” she posited.
