G/town Mayor’s call for Granger to be sworn-in borders “lunacy or pure ignorance” – Councillor

Georgetown Mayor Ubraj Narine should focus on the “numerous problems plaguing the City Council instead of venturing out on the propaganda trail”, says city councillor Bishram Kuppen.

Mayor Narine recently issued a statement calling for caretaker president David Granger to be sworn-in on the basis of fraudulent results.

However, Councillor Kuppen pointed out that Mayor Narine should not be “postulating on legal matters for which he is immensely unqualified”; he further stated that Mayor Narine “lacks the intellectual capacity to lecture anyone on complex legal matters.”

“To use the Office of the Mayor to call for the illegal swearing-in of a failed candidate, David Granger, who has lost the elections by [more than] 15,416 votes, is bordering on lunacy or pure ignorance, or a combination of both, and places the Mayor in that select group of corrupt individuals trying to thwart the will of the Guyanese electorate,” Kuppen said in a letter to the editor.

According to Kuppen, Narine had already identified himself as “a low-level PNC player in the rigging APNU/AFC coalition whose sole aim is to steal the elections.”

Mayor Narine, in a statement yesterday, claimed that APNU/AFC won the elections based on Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield’s fraudulent report of June 23, 2020.

But Kuppen said the Mayor should have informed himself of the verified and certified valid votes cast during the recount exercise which CEO Lowenfield had already submitted to GECOM Chairperson Justice (retd), Claudette Singh.

“This was reported widely in the media but apparently, the Mayor missed this, perhaps due to his preoccupation with APNU/AFC propaganda matters,” the Councillor highlighted.

Kuppen said the Mayor must be reminded that all of the local and international observers, all contesting political parties (except APNU/AFC), the diplomatic community, the Caricom recount team, a number of current and past Prime Ministers of the Caribbean, many international organisations, Mr Granger’s own son-in-law, Justice for All Party (coalition member) and numerous others have all agreed that the PPP/C won the elections based on the actual election results and the subsequent recount of all valid votes cast.

General Secretary of the PPP/C Bharrat Jagdeo, on Wednesday lambasted Granger over comments he made recently which suggested that the GECOM is “bound to accept” the concocted figures presented by the Chief Elections Officer for final declaration.

Foreign Powers have called on GECOM to declare the results of the elections on the basis of the certified figures emanating from the National Recount.

The National Recount, which was conducted under the scrutiny of a special Caribbean Community (Caricom) team, shows the PPP/C in a landslide victory with some 15,416 more votes than its main political rival, the APNU/AFC coalition.