Dear Editor,
Let us forget for one moment, if we can, the coronavirus and the government’s indecisive and lame response under Minister of Public Health Ms. Volda Lawrence. For this purpose, let us enumerate the path leading to and following the March 2, 2020 elections.
1. A motion of No confidence was passed on December 21, 2018. After all the delaying tactics by Granger and his undemocratic administration, the Caribbean Court of Justice ruled on June 18, 2019 that the motion was properly passed. The ruling was all but ignored.
2. The National Assembly last met on May 23, 2019.
3. To delay matters further, Granger did not dissolve Parliament until December 30, 2019. During that time, the usurper Granger and his administration have been ruling by edicts and subterfuge.
4. Meanwhile, unrestrained by any parliamentary oversight or control, Winston Jordan has continued to operate the government bank account in breach of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act.
5. With no Parliament, there can be no budget for the current year. Except by some miracle, there will be none within this half-year. No one knows how Jordan is treating with public moneys.
6. Elections were held March 2. That is, twenty-nine days ago.
7. By all accounts, Granger and his government were rejected by the voters and have lost their legitimacy.
8. He and his Ministers would be unwelcome in almost every country, including CARICOM.
9. Bilateral and multilateral agencies – including the World Bank and the IMF – seem hesitant to deal with us.
This is truly a disastrous sequence of events, the scars and consequences of which will last a very long time.
We all know that everything went superbly on March 2. Voters cast their votes, their votes were counted for all the Polling Districts, all with no hiccups. Results were declared for nine of the ten Elections Districts and the halfway stage for ED 4 was approaching. These showed that the APNU+AFC was losing badly. The problem for the openly pro-APNU+AFC was how to transform the actual results disclosed in the Statements of Polls for ED 10 into an incredible victory for Granger’s APNU+AFC.
The new plan was as evil as it was crude and simple: buy enough time to doctor, then cast aside, the SOPS. Instead of a proper tabulation, use a fictitious spreadsheet to deliver the result Granger wanted and pass this to Lowenfield to do the rest. Who vex, vex and can go to court.
The APNU+AFC seems to believe that they can use the courts to their advantage. For example, they benefitted from the delay beyond the ninety days allowed under a successful No Confidence Motion case, from that involving the petition for the 2015 election which is languishing somewhere in the system, and from the resolution of the challenge to Granger’s unlawful appointment of two Ministers which took almost five years. They believe that once again, high priced lawyers will buy them time. That the fuss about the recount is in their favour. They know that this is not really a challenge about a recount: there was nothing wrong with the counting of the votes. No recount was therefore necessary. The real issue is the fraudulent tampering with the SOPS and the use of a spreadsheet with fictitious numbers.
The parties are making a concession to the APNU+AFC when it calls for a recount. Are the SOPS going to be any different? Neither Mingo nor Lowenfield has shown any remorse at the disaster and shame they have brought unto Guyana. I do not think that it is realistic to expect Mingo and Lowenfield to deviate from their recent suspect acts.
Granger, Ramjattan and Nagamootoo have pursued court actions which have largely worked in their favour in the past. With the stakes as high as they are, the trio are prepared to take what appears to be their chance and to hell with the country, or with any veneer of decency, honour and integrity.
Yours faithfully,
Christopher Ram
