Dear Editor,
The conduct of the March 2 elections across the country was universally considered efficient, free and fair. The tabulation of the votes in all the Polling Districts except for District 4 was without event or dispute. District 4 was the outlier. Before the eyes of the world, Clairmont Mingo, the Returning Officer engaged in a process which found disfavour with the High Court. He was asked to go back and do it properly. He compounded his mistake the second time.
The result was a fair and accurate counting in all the Polling Districts of the country being undermined by the crude rigging of the tabulation in Polling District 4. It would be an unfair over-simplification to attribute all this mischief to Mingo. In fact, I think he is a pawn in a bigger plot.
There are seven commissioners of GECOM. Vincent Alexander, Charles Corbin and Desmond Trotman were nominated by the governing parties while Ms. Bibi Shadick, Sase Gunraj and Robeson Benn were nominated by the current Opposition party. The chairperson is Justice Claudette Singh. Then there is Lowenfield, Chief Election Officer with operational responsibility for the elections.
The Commissioners and Lowenfield have taken an oath to honour, uphold and preserve the Constitution. Yet, Alexander, Corbin, Trotman and Lowenfield witnessed, if not encouraged, the desecration of the voting by what is as close to a fraudulent tabulation as is possible. In fact, Lowenfield was prepared to recommend to the Commission numbers based on the fraudulent tabulation while Alexander wanted the Commission to receive and consider the Polling District 4 “result”. Clearly, Alexander, Corbin, Trotman and Lowenfield were not prepared to let a simple matter like a blatant fraud get in their way.
In the days and weeks that followed, Alexander as the leader of the angry pack was willing to use every ruse to frustrate the proper tabulation of the Polling District 4 Statements of Polls. It did not matter to him that he offended the CARICOM Chair and the rest of CARICOM. What mattered was the time it allowed one of the APNU+AFC candidates to file a frivolous court action. There is no inference that can be drawn other than that Alexander, Corbin, Trotman and Lowenfield wanted the APNU+AFC to “win” the elections. Legality, reputation and oath were irrelevant to the ultimate outcome: swearing in of Granger.
Even after expending considerable time and money in a process that has most recently drawn sharp comments from Prime Minister Keith Rowley of Trinidad and Tobago, and after the Full Court refused to entertain a spurious legal challenge with no reasonable prospect of success, it seems that Alexander, Trotman and Corbin are not ruling out further games.
Having reluctantly been forced to accept the GECOM Chair’s undertaking to have a recount of the votes in Polling District 4, Alexander in the presence of Trotman and Corbin told the media that “the recount would not necessarily be used to declare the winner”. More perfidiously, he made statements that are clearly troubling. With his air of Socratic arrogance, he raised the “flawed process” of the elections, the basic question of what a recount really means, and an examination of “what’s now in those [ballot] boxes”.
Of course, none of these would have mattered if APNU+AFC had won the elections. Indeed, with all his conscientious objection to the flawed process of which he seemed to have been aware, he did not object to Mingo’s fictitious numbers.
Sensing that his image and reputation depend on causing as much trouble as possible in GECOM, and that time is running out on them, Alexander and indeed Trotman, Corbin and Lowenfield, seem oblivious to the serious consequences which their games raise for Guyana. Prime Minister Rowley, no friend of Guyana’s opposition and who probably never met Irfaan Ali, demonstrated admirable restraint and statesmanship in answering questions from his country’s media on the failure in Guyana to observe the basic elements of democracy.
Alexander who often represents himself as the spokesman of GECOM, now seems to have appointed himself as the leader of the recount process – unaware of the ruling by the Chief Justice. Left to his devices, the recount will take the rest of the year. Aiming for maximum delay, he would question everything from the chemical composition of the boxes to the ink used at each polling station. His misrepresentation of Article 162 of the Constitution, whether by choice or lack of knowledge, shows what is to be expected if Alexander gets his way.
Alexander, Corbin, Trotman and Lowenfield may not care that Guyana now faces the perfect storm. Indeed, they seem willing and capable of being one of the elements of that storm. They should pause enough to hear PM Rowley’s warning that “it is not going to end well.” An unduly delayed or obstructionist recount is likely to be the penultimate step to sanctions. They should recall and re-read their oath. It is not to Granger or the APNU+AFC. It is to their conscience and the Constitution. They may not care much about their visas being pulled but they need to realise that they risk taking down Guyana with them. Wider sanctions will affect every Guyanese, including those shouting `Swear in Granger’.
Yours faithfully,
Christopher Ram
