25th April – 5th May Quotes

“Are accusing every person who participated in the elections of fraud; they are accusing all those people of a criminal offence and all those who man the electoral machinery on Elections Day are being accused of perpetrating multiple criminal offences. You can’t continue like that in a society and GECOM has a responsibility to protect its integrity.”

ANIL NANDLALL

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2

“This exercise is about counting…it’s not rocket science; it’s just counting the votes. Whoever wins wins, whoever loses loses,”

FERNANDO PONZ CANTO

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3

“I think Stanley Ming should have said and should have called on the [APNU] party publicly… and to encourage the party or GECOM – with their influence at GECOM – to arrest and investigate Mingo. What this says about our country is you could commit a political crime, no matter how consequential, once you got a party behind you, you are protected. Because that’s the only thing I can see protecting Mingo. But the fact is I believe Stanley Ming ought to have said something about it…,”

CHRISTOPHER RAM

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4

“Further, CARICOM heads of government played a rightful role in ensuring that “every vote be counted, and every vote must count” in the general elections. The international community stepped back from its frontal role to give CARICOM the chance to deliver on a credible recount of the votes.”

SIR RONALD SANDERS

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5

“I am worried about unnecessary hostilities being excited in our country by political leaders who continue to make irresponsible, baseless accusations and insinuations and a pack of political leaders who continue to attack the character, reputation and good standing of tens of thousands of Guyanese.”

ANIL NANDLALL

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6

“I am tempted to say we all know what happened, but I don’t want to focus on pointing fingers and say who did what and why; it’s not really constructive at this point.”

FERNANDO PONZ CANTO

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7

“But David Granger has other problems. Not once but twice, prior even to the Recount beginning, and based entirely on the fraudulent Lowenfield Report from the Mingo tabulation, David Granger told his party followers that APNU+AFC had won the Elections. The ballot recount has proved already that he lied to his followers.”

KIT NASCIMENTO

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8

“Stanley Ming’s ignorance, oversight, dishonest attempt to conflate the Official List of Electors with population; that’s what he’s doing… It’s our worldwide population that has found itself onto registration [which includes Guyanese who have registered but are living overseas]… The danger with what Stanley is doing, he’s conflating the two, and that is dishonest; that’s unforgiveable… I think Stanley has been very dishonest in that regard, and he ought to correct himself,”

CHRISTOPHER RAM

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9

“Even if any other CARICOM government wished to ignore disregard for democracy and the rule of law in Guyana, CARICOM, as an organisation, could not do so now. The CARICOM Secretariat has played an outstanding role in observing these elections and pronouncing on them; CARICOM is bound to those pronouncements.”

SIR RONALD SANDERS

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10

“We said it very clearly: the tabulation process for Region Four was not credible, [it] was not reflecting the will of the people, it was following a process that was not the right process. I saw it personally; I was there in the tabulation centre. [But] it doesn’t really matter that I saw it personally…all our observation missions saw it,”

FERNANDO PONZ CANTO

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11

“No man can be a judge in his own cause. GECOM can’t judge its own process. GECOM managed the electoral process, so they can’t sit to judge themselves. More importantly, the constitution says that only the High Court has exclusive jurisdiction to hear and determine any allegation of irregularity and negligent conduct or actions at an election,”

ANIL NANDLALL

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12

“I would be hard pressed to find anyone in TT who doesn’t believe that a determinedly cynical and focused attempt is being made by the David Granger administration and its votaries to stay in office.”

REGINALD DUMAS

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13

“If Granger does not relinquish power,” “should the current recount show that his party has lost, CARICOM should immediately suspend Guyana from membership, pending a full return to democracy, and move the headquarters of CARICOM from Guyana to another CARICOM country. Not since the 1960s, when former Prime Minister of Barbados, Errol Barrow, described certain Eastern Caribbean leaders as “bandits”, have CARICOM leaders criticised let alone acted against one of their number. It is time for that silence to stop, in the interest of the peoples of the area.”

JOHN BEALE

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14

“Joining in the attempt to overthrow the elections is dangerous, dishonest and irresponsible. We’ve had this situation in 1997. If there is unrest and worse, sparked by the narrative of the APNU/AFC (A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change) that the PPP/C (People’s Progressive Party/Civic) rigged the elections, I hope that my friend Stanley Ming would be prepared to come out publicly and claim ownership of consequences, if only indirectly,”

CHRISTOPHER RAM

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15

“While Suriname will proceed to reap the reward of its democracy and its transparent elections by the embrace of the international community in the production and sale of its now considerable oil and gas resources, Guyana could see its prospects dim for any similar riches.”

SIR RONALD SANDERS

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16

“In fact, the APNU+AFC have gone further in stating that “any results emanating from this process cannot be considered credible because of the high incidence of fraud”, thereby rejecting the entire recount process. It therefore immediately becomes incumbent on Granger to either reject the APNU+AFC statement, or be seen to have lied to the nation.”

KIT NASCIMENTO

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17

“What Granger does is not just a matter for him and the people of Guyana,” Beale argued, “as a member of CARICOM what happens in Guyana directly impinges on the region as a whole, particularly as Guyana is bound by the CARICOM Treaty and the Charter of Civil Society. Therefore, under no circumstances should CARICOM tolerate violations of democracy, the rule of law and political and civil rights. The latter is a cancer. Once it is not excised in one limb of the CARICOM Group, it will spread to all others.”

JOHN BEALE

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18

“Reconciliation is important, important for us to get together, important for us to understand that Guyana belongs to all of us and that as [a] Government, we [will] have a responsibility not only to the supporters of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic but to all Guyanese regardless of who you supported. These are commitments we made throughout the campaign and we are surely going to stick by those commitments,”

IRFAAN ALI

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19

“This is democracy and PPP has made it clear- and look at our period in office too, that we have to manage Guyana in the interest of all Guyanese,”

“We want to make sure that every Guyanese, wherever they live in this country or whatever their political affiliation or their race can all equally share the benefits of our country,”

BHARRAT JAGDEO

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20

“This is my judgment…I am not a professional observer”.

“What is important is that this was the unanimous judgment of all the observation missions, including the EU; and those guys are professionals and they know when things are going right or not.”

FERNANDO PONZ CANTO

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21

“If, however, there is disregard for the recounted votes and an accompanying attempt to ignore democracy and the rule of law, the international community will come down hard on an illegitimate government, and the fortunes of the Guyanese people will once again be thwarted.”

SIR RONALD SANDERS

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22

“The Commonwealth not only observed the Guyanese elections,” “but it had provided technical assistance to GECOM in the form of two experts, high qualified people from other countries in the Commonwealth, experts in electoral matters who helped to define and develop and perfect the electoral process that was implemented on election day.  These men’s reputations now stand to be buffeted by allegations that the system that they helped to define and develop was characterized and tainted by massive fraud.”

OWEN ARTHUR

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23

“I want to assure as your next President and the next Government that [my] Government is committed to constitutional reform and meaningful constitutional reform, ensuring that all Guyanese and all segment of the population are consulted and included in the process of constitutional reform. But much more than this, we have learned so much from this period. Electoral reforms that are needed, restructuring of the Elections Commission – these are all things that must occupy the agenda of all of us collectively, not only the Government or the People’s Progressive Party/Civic,”

IRFAAN ALI

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24

“Post-election developments exposed a dysfunctional commission unable to control its own secretariat.”

“By failing to take decisive action as the electoral process derailed into chaos and illegality, GECOM abdicated its constitutional duty to take all actions necessary to ensure compliance with the law by any of its officials, despite unequivocal powers to remove and exercise disciplinary control over them,”

FERNANDO PONZ CANTÓ

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25

“The question now arises about what will happen when, by June 16, GECOM announces the result of the recounted votes of the elections. The entire regional and international community has called for the result of the recount to be accepted by all parties and that it be the basis for installing a government that reflects the votes cast by the majority of the electorate.”

SIR RONALD SANDERS

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