The crystallisation of the plan to steal Govt

Dear Editor,
With every meeting of GECOM, the contours of the PNC-led APNU/AFC plans to steal the elections and remain in power are becoming more pronounced. The total rejection of all the proposals made by the Commissioners appointed on the recommendation of the PPP/C by the three Government Commissioners and Claudette Singh, the Chairperson of the Commission, has demonstrated a serious lack of will to stand strong for our nation. The Chair is wittingly or unwittingly facilitating the PNC riggers’ diabolical plans.

The PNC elite, including Granger, believes that it can still steal the elections.
That conviction on the PNC’s part is fuelled by the successes which they had in first placing the PPP/C in a minority position in the National Assembly after the 2011 elections and stealing the elections completely in 2015. The technique that they tried during the counting of the 2020 elections was the same used in the two previous elections.

In passing, in the interest of truth, the 2011 and 2015 elections should be audited sometime in the future.
The recent decision by the Commission is intended to discourage any independent participation in the recount.  The minimum of twenty-five days is aimed at keeping away observers from Caricom, OAS, The Commonwealth and the Carter Center.

Indeed, they have many other places that they could use to count the votes, at the moment several large schools in Georgetown are available and could accommodate much more counting stations.  This job really should not take five days.

As far as the local observers are concerned, the PNC cabal wants to exclude them completely. The alternative strategy to keep them away is to try to say that they are not impartial. Thus, the attacks on them and mainly on the most vocal among them. Added to this is the frustration and intimidation that are also being employed to discourage the locals.
If their plan cannot be executed fully because of vigilance of the Guyanese people and the international community then the PNC-led cabal would resort to another plot.

That would be applying destructive tactics. With their control of the security forces, they will ensure that those put to do security will be carefully chosen to allow the PNC thugs to infiltrate the centre with the aim of destroying the ballots on some flimsy pretext or the other.

Already, we saw one of the staunch advocates of stealing the elections, David Hinds, talking about burning the ballots ‘Mouth open, story jump out’.
What do they hope to gain by that?

It is a similar tactic they used to combat the No-Confidence Motion. Recall a statement made by another defender of this lawless regime, Mr Nigel Hughes. He had at a public outing, responded to those who were ridiculing his 33-34 gymnastic by saying but it got the Government a year more.  That was their objection in the first place.
These new tactics that they are clearly now putting into operation are designed to give them years in power without any mandate from the people.

If they can succeed in destroying the ballots by a staged disturbance using thugs from outside or even staff from within GECOM then they would claim that the results were inconclusive and call for new elections.
However, to extend their time in Government they would demand a new list on the basis of House-to-House Registration. That, they will ensure, would take not less than two to three years.
The new House-to-House Registration under the present Secretariat ensconced in GECOM would be a totally corrupt operation. Therefore, any new elections under these circumstances would be rigged at the initial stages from the list itself.

The insistence of keeping Mr Lowenfield and Mr Mingo in the system despite their clear bias demonstrates what they want to do. Those people, among others in GECOM, have displayed total insensitivity to public opinion and seem ready to do anything to keep the regime in place. Those are the types of persons that the PNC is counting on to lead their charge and keep them in power.

For those who may still think this is far-fetched, they should recall that in 1997 when the PNC called for a boycott of the counting in their attempt to stymie Janet Jagan’s swearing-in, some 90 per cent of the GECOM staff walked out on their call, demonstrating their political bias.

By disallowing every suggestion of the Opposition-appointed Commissioners, the fig leaf has fallen away, Claudette Singh has exposed herself is being totally weak and seems willing to hand over her mandate to the PNC cabal.
In preparation for this new assault the PNC has put their main ‘intellectual’ writers in overdrive. Their job is to try to disguise the sheer crookedness of the PNC cabal, their corruption and undemocratic character.

They are trying to move this from a struggle to defend democracy, to defend decency and to clean up public life into to a question of race. This is the last refuge of scoundrels. It is racist from another position, that is, it is a terrible abuse of our Afro-Guyanese compatriots.

This last-ditch, desperate attempt at rigging/manipulating is not just an assault on the Guyanese people. It is an affront to our Caricom region, to the Commonwealth, the OAS, the Carter Center and the entire family of democratic nations in our hemisphere and beyond.

Together we must work to frustrate their diabolical plans of this corrupt, power-hungry clique. Our country, our people deserve nothing less!

Sincerely,
Donald Ramotar
Former President