Dear Editor,
Now that I have completed and delivered on the PNCR`s internal elections, without any evidential or credible finger pointing at its integrity, for the second consecutive time, I will spare a moment to expose those who are pre-indisposed to anything good coming out of the PNCR; and those who cannot help but judge any and everything by the corrupt ethos that has enveloped the country, which is actually of their making, and the manner of the conduct of business by some of them, a la Jagdeo, Ramson, Gunraj, et al, as I will illustrate here under.
Having been unable to discredit the conduct of polling, at the recent PNCR internal elections, they turned to the time span between the close of poll and the declaration of the results of one aspect of the election, the central executive committee members, to maliciously insinuate that there was malfeasance or incompetence. Obviously, they could only insinuate since there is no evidence to support their contention. Their supposition that the time taken to announce, not to count, the results meant that mischief was afoot or that incompetence was manifest. That seems to be the nature of politics in Guyana. The other side must be vilified by all means possible and at any cost. According to Jagdeo, “it is the politics”. Here are some facts that expose their plot.
1. The PNCR engaged a contractor to conduct its internal election. If the contractor failed in any form or fashion how does that add up to PNCR incompetence and/or inability to run the country?
2. The results of the election of the key PNCR officers were declared the very night of the election. Is that evidence of an incompetent outfit, at work?
3. None of the vilifiers were sufficiently knowledgeable and/or honest about the duration of time that the count actually took. Jagdeo and others spouted that the process took six days, in their attempt to justify their “so called” concerns, and in Jagdeo`s, Gunraj`s, and Ramson`s case, they sought to project the PPP as a superior outfit since their results were declared in fewer days. The facts be told, the period of the PNCR count of the CEC ballots was no more than 36 actual hours over a three day period: Tuesday through Thursday. Counting was done for approximately 12 hours on each of those days as opposed to continuous counting as Jagdeo unwittingly disclosed was the approach that Robeson Benn and team adopted for the PPP count. How can a comparison be made between a continuous count over days and 36 hours, not to mention the disparity in the number of persons involved in the count and the fact that actual delegates a la Benn were the ones who conducted the PPP count?
4. Their lack of knowledge and/or malicious intent was further exposed by their unintelligent contention that if the PNCR ballot count, in 2021, was completed in three days, the period taken in 2024 was symptomatic of incompetence or wrongdoing. In 2021, the ballots were counted simultaneously across eleven regions. In 2024, they were counted sequentially in a central place. There is no basis on which the time taken to count ballots simultaneously across eleven places and one count in one place can be juxtaposed. Jagdeo`s contention exposes his intellectual inadequacy, in as much as it exposes his devious nature in his attempt to vilify others.
The PNCR contractor, in terms of time and manpower, efficiently conducted the count, and more importantly conducted a poll that even Jagdeo could not fault, but for his devious, mischievous and baseless attempt to insinuate incompetence or malfeasance during the count. All that he has succeeded in doing was to, once again, demonstrate his own intellectual bankruptcy, cheap politicking and mal-intent. Jagdeo should be held accountable for the corruption and squandermania that has become the order of the day, under his watch, rather than being allowed to vilify others in his pursuit to retain the reins of government, by any means possible.
Sincerely,
Vincent Alexander