The riggers are in full panic mode – the rigging conspiracy road coming to an end

BY: DR. LESLIE RAMSAMMY

The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) is today scheduled to deliver its decision on the March 2 elections in Guyana. The ruling today is an opportunity to end David Granger’s and APNU/AFC’s barefaced, brazen attempt to thief the March 2 elections. The vast majority of Guyanese, including many who voted for Granger’s APNU/AFC, and the whole international community, including Caricom, the Commonwealth, the OAS, the ABCE countries and The Carter Center are hoping that the CCJ’s rulings today will end the travesty. It is now one hundred and twenty-eight (128) days since the elections. It has never happened in the history of the world that people in any country had to wait more than four months for the results of an election. In the Caribbean, three countries have had elections after March 2 and all of them had results within 48 hours. St Kitts and Nevis had their elections and results within hours. So too did the Dominican Republic. Suriname had results within 48 hours. Trinidad and Tobago will hold elections on August 10. Guyanese are hoping by then a new Guyanese President would have been sworn in.

While most people in and out of Guyana are hopeful the CCJ’s ruling will help to bring closure to this sordid affair, the riggers are in full panic mode. On Caricom Day (July 6), Granger’s APNU/AFC tried mobilising supporters to protest against the CCJ and Caricom. On Caricom’s 47th anniversary, Burnham’s party shamelessly organised a protest against Caricom leaders because they dared to stand resolutely in unity against Burnham’s party trying to thief the March 2 elections. Granger and APNU/AFC have accused Caricom leaders of being bribed by Bharrat Jagdeo. It is an insult to leaders whose only “crime” is standing up for democracy in Guyana. It is shameful that APNU/AFC, in the COVID-19 era, with leaders safely at home, sent out supporters to protest against Caricom leaders. To their credit, thankfully, most of Granger’s supporters boycotted the protest. They are wiser than their leaders.

The Caricom Day protest, even if sparse, disgracefully also targeted the CCJ, two days before the CCJ’s ruling. In anticipation that the CCJ ruling will not be in their favour, APNU/AFC organised their supporters, those willing few, to come out protesting against “interference” by both Caricom and the CCJ. While we are not certain what the CCJ’s rulings will be, the legal arguments leave us confident that APNU/AFC failed to make a case. The CCJ’s ruling, if it is what we anticipate, has the potential to end the rigging scandal in Guyana. But APNU/AFC is in panic mode, trying to intimidate and threaten the CCJ, raising the prospect the ruling might cause an uprising in Guyana. This is the reprehensible message APNU/AFC is sending to the CCJ. But outside the protest, they also have had a social media frenzy attacking the CCJ.

In one particularly reprehensible, puerile, social media post, they accused Bharrat Jagdeo, Jerry Goveia and Ramesh Dookhoo of organising illegal flights to Trinidad to bribe the CCJ Judges. While we do not know who started that repugnant message, we do know it is endorsed by Joe Harmon. It was posted on his FB page. First, the message insults the CCJ Judges because it alleges they can be bought. Second, it implies Harmon is incompetent, which is true. Third, it insults the Civil Aviation staff because no plane can leave Guyana without the Civil Aviation’s permission and that permission must be approved by Harmon, the CEO of the COVID-19 Task Force, Moses Nagamootoo, the Chair of the COVID-19 Task Force and David Granger. Seriously, who believes Bharrat Jagdeo bribed all of them to allow the plane to leave Guyana illegally? Then it insults Trinidad because Bharrat Jagdeo “bribed” everyone there, including Prime Minister Rowley, to allow an illegal landing of a plane when all airports in Trinidad are under lockdown. This story alone underlines the full-scale panic Granger’s APNU/AFC is under right now.

In the meanwhile, the sycophants are on the warpath. David Hinds now accuses the CCJ of trying to seize jurisdiction, in collaboration with the PPP to rig the elections and to have a coup d’état. He ignored the Statements of Poll and the Statements of Recount, both showing the PPP convincingly winning the elections. He ignored Mingo’s and Lowenfield’s fraud. But he concludes the CCJ was seizing jurisdiction as part of their rigging plan and coup plan with Bharrat Jagdeo. This is the same man who, when it became clear the PPP had won, wanted the ballot boxes destroyed and wanted a do-over of the elections. This is the same man who wanted to disregard the elections and establish an interim government with David Granger as President. For him, the coup is OK, as long as David Granger is President. In the meanwhile, other sycophants are in full-mouthed incitement of their supporters to stop the swearing-in of the real winner of the elections.

Hopefully, good sense will prevail. Hopefully, by the time my next column appears in this space, President Irfaan Ali would have assumed office and begun the work of putting Guyana back on the road to prosperity. And our shame would come to an end.