APNU/AFC Govt a “danger” to Guyana and its people – PPP/C

Electoral coup détat

The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) on Sunday called out the caretaker APNU/AFC coalition over its outrageous and delirious claims made regarding Guyana’s protracted elections process, which is nearing its fifth month.

In a statement on Sunday, the APNU/AFC called for “a credible vote, since in the bundle of tabulated votes rests several votes which are fraudulent.” It also went on to claim, among other things, that there is “a carefully orchestrated plan to oust a legitimately elected Government and to implement regime change by some entities and not a genuine desire to assist Guyana at his difficult time.”

In addition, the coalition noted that 63 letters were sent to the GECOM Chair and the Secretariat over the last three months and only received six responses.

“As a major stakeholder in these elections, we find this totally unacceptable and reiterate that fraudulent votes must be excluded in a final count. These concerns must be addressed if we are to move forward,” the APNU/AFC stated.
Further, the coalition has accused the the International Observers and Ambassadors of the ABCE countries of tuning a blind eye on the alleged eletorial fraud.

However, in response, the PPP/C said that the coalition’s latest ramblings are inane and incredulous.
“The delusional author of this statement repeats the outrageous allegation of a national and international conspiracy to oust the APNU+AFC from Government. If anything at all, this statement is proof to the world that the rigging cabal has clearly lost their minds and remains a threat of danger to Guyana and its people,” the party said in a subsequent missive on Sunday.

According to the PPP/C, the coalition’s utterances cannot be intended for sane, right-thinking Guyanese but seemed to be written for a “captured” David Granger, who the party said needs repeated convincing of the line being pushed by the coalition’s Joseph Harmon and others. This statement, the PPP/C added, will no doubt be taken to Granger as “evidence” of the delusional notion of an electoral victory.

Moreover, the PPP/C went on to say that the statement rehashes a set of issues that have long been overtaken by events and judicial pronouncements from both the High Court and the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) – Guyana’s apex court.

The party pointed out that the APNU/AFC continues to recite the ridiculous and unsubstantiated allegations it made during at the recount exercise, that is, accusing the PPP of rigging. It further attacked Order 60 of 2020 – also known as the Recount Order which was used to conduct the exercise – as well quoted Justice Brassington Reynolds’ ruling in the Court of Appeal in the Eslyn David case, which was set aside by the CCJ.

The Trinidad-based regional court in its judgement of July 8, 2020, ruled that the decision handed down by Guyana’s Appeal Court – the judgement that was used by the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) to dump over 100,000 votes – was invalid. The CCJ also invalidated the CEO, Keith Lowenfield’s June 23 report and stated that the certified results of the National Recount must be used for any declaration of the March 2 elections results.

The 33-day exercise, which was supervised by a team of Caribbean Community (Caricom) scrutineers, show that the PPP/C won the elections with a landslide victory, having secured 233,336 votes while the caretaker APNU/AFC obtained 217,920 votes – a difference of some 15,416 votes.

“Having regard to known events, subsequent to the National Recount exercise, it must be clear to the ordinary reader that the author of this statement is in dire need of psychiatric attention. In the author’s schizophrenic mind, he/she erases the existence of a report produced by David Granger’s most “legitimate interlocutors”, the Caricom team, who dismissed their allegations of irregularities as erroneous, unsubstantiated and of nuisance value only, while endorsing the recount as credible and transparent and calling for the results of the recount to be used as the basis for the declaration of the final results of the elections,” the PPP/C said on Sunday.

In addition to ignoring the CCJ’s ruling, the PPP/C further outlined that the coalition similarly omitted to mention a word of the Chief Justice (ag), Roxane George’s recent judgement in the Misenga Jones case, in which she dismissed the case based upon the identical sentiments expressed in the very statement.

Jones, an APNU/AFC supporter, had moved to the High Court to block the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) from using the recount results for the declaration of the 2020 elections – held over four months ago.
In her July 20 decision, Justice George upheld the previous judgement by the CCJ and ruled that GECOM must make a declaration based on the recount results, thus dismissing the application filed by the coalition agent.

The Chief Justice also contended that the Chief Elections Officer, “cannot act on his own” and has to act based on the direction of the Elections Commission. She further set aside the initial declarations made by the 10 Returning Officers, noting that these were overtaken by the recount results.

Lowenfield has consistently failed to comply with the directions of the seven-member Commission, and submitted several of his elections reports using fraudulent figures. In his last report, he even included the fraudulent numbers declared by embattled Region Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo, who was found to have heavily inflated the figures in Guyana’s largest voting district in favour of the caretaker coalition.
Nevertheless, Jones has since challenged the Chief Justice’s ruling and after a marathon hearing of arguments of Saturday, the Appeal Court will deliver its decision on Thursday, July 30.