Dear Editor,
It is good that we have been able to put to rest Mr. Clement Rohee’s misconception that I linked multiple voting to unclaimed ID cards and the confusion he created around the ‘clean hands’ doctrine. However, he is now trying to exculpate the PPP/C from wrongdoing in relation to the establishment of the existing bloated list by explaining how and who created it, i.e., throwing the blame on others and questioning whether or not it was used to rig the previous election (‘GECOM is the sole proprietor and keeper of a bloated list.’ SN: 12/11/2019). Had Mr. Rohee truly understood my position he would have quickly come to realise that his present excursion is irrelevant. Firstly, even as he asked me to define what I meant by ‘bloated list’, Mr. Rohee was able to adopt and work with a definition very close to what I intended. Thus, I agree with his final statement that “His call to GECOM to ‘deprive PPP/C of any opportunity to benefit from bloated list’ should have read ‘deprive ALL parties any opportunity to benefit from a bloated list’.” I have made such a call before, but I specifically identified the PPP/C on this occasion not only because it made no effort to clean the list when it was in government but more importantly, it is now vociferously objecting to the efforts being made to do what should have been done long ago.
Secondly, Mr. Rohee, if an auditor enquired why you did not complete a certain accounting procedure as is lawfully required, you cannot find refuge in the fact that nothing was stolen from the company as a result of your negligent behaviour. Similarly, a clean elections list is a prerequisite for free and fair elections and there is absolutely no need for anyone to prove that elections were rigged by the use of a bloated list to conclude that an egregious wrong was done to the Guyanese people by the mere use of such a list. How the bloat developed is largely irrelevant to my position.
Mr. Rohee I would not put too much faith in the many eyes that are observing elections: counterfeit democrats have become very innovative (Cheeseman Nicholas and Brian Klaas (2018) How to Rig an Election. Yale University Press). With this, Mr. Rohee, I believe I have said sufficient for you to be able to extrapolate and deal with such other queries you may have.
Yours faithfully,
Henry B Jeffrey
