Dear Editor,
The world has witnessed, through the international community, its Observers and Heads of Missions in Guyana, a criminal conspiracy to prevent the real results of our General and Regional Elections being declared and the substitution of a fraudulent result carried out in the main by three senior officers of GECOM on behalf of the political party clinging to power.
I personally witnessed this criminal conspiracy taking place at GECOM directly involving Clairmont Mingo and Roxanne Myers, directed by Keith Lowenfield and enabled by GECOM’s Chairman, Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh, by her studied inaction.
It is obvious that this conspiracy is intended to serve only one beneficiary, APNU+AFC, under the leadership of David Granger. Why obvious?
By the evening of the 2nd March the election results at every District, from 1 to 10, except District 4, were completed and Statements of Poll recording those results were posted outside of every polling place and in the possession of the two major contesting political parties and in the possession of some of the International Observer groups.
By early Tuesday morning, APNU+AFC and the PPP/C had tabulated all of the Statements of Poll, including District 4, and knew the results of the election. At this point in time, none of the political parties had raised any objections to the counting and posting of the results in any of the Districts. All that was left to do in order to declare the winner of the election was to complete the District 4 count.
However, by the time District 4 Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo, had completed roughly six (6) hours of the District 4 count, at about 08:30 hours on Wednesday 4th March, he stopped the count, eventually claiming to be sick and was later taken away in a stretcher.
The District 4 count was not to be resumed until early Wednesday afternoon, but, not by Mingo, as he had promised when he had stopped the count and who had miraculously recovered and had returned to GECOM, but by GECOM Clerks assigned by Lowenfield. These Clerks, instead of calling the count from the Statements of Poll as required by the law, resorted to the use of a mysterious spreadsheet. Not surprisingly, all of the contesting party representatives strenuously objected to this process except APNU+AFC. The count, however, continued.
As an Accredited Observer for the Private Sector Commission, I was present and witnessed this fiasco taking place and I ask myself why? The answer was simple enough. The District 4 result was already known and the losing party could not live with it and needed time to fix it.
Eventually, at about 6:00 p.m, Lowenfield returned and sought to unlawfully justify the use of the spreadsheet as an “administrative decision”. Under protest, Lowenfield was forced to compare the spreadsheet figures with the official Statements of Poll which were exposed as fraudulent, giving votes to APNU+AFC. I witnessed this wickedness.
What happened after this has already been widely reported. Every ruse had been employed by the GECOM officials to further delay the count, including even a bomb scare to get Observers out of the building. At about 2:30 p.m Mingo made the first of his attempts to declare an illegal election result without the District 4 count being completed. I was there and witnessed the uproar. So, too, were the entire international community.
Had it not been for the Injunction served on GECOM and the ruling of the Chief Justice preventing the declaration and the commitment to the Court by Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh to continue the count of the District 4 votes, David Granger would have happily been sworn in and an illegal APNU+AFC government installed.
Completely unfazed by the repeated directions of the Chief Justice, Mingo, once again, on 13th March, resumed the count using a spreadsheet which bore no relationship to the Statements of Poll in the possession of the contesting parties and the Observers.
I again witnessed this determined attempt at fraud as I sat alongside the Accredited Observers of the Carter Center, the USA, the United Kingdom, Canada, the European Union and the Commonwealth, together with the Ambassador of the USA to Guyana, the Ambassador of the European Union to Guyana, the High Commissioner of Canada to Guyana and the High Commissioner of the United Kingdom to Guyana.
I also sat alongside representatives of all of the contesting parties, including APNU+AFC, but only, amongst all of us, present and witnessing this deliberate criminal activity to steal our elections, one party, the APNU+AFC, continually supported the fraudulent behaviour taking place before our very eyes. Why? Because they were the only party which stood to benefit.
I also personally witnessed that, while all of this criminal and fraudulent behaviour continued to unfold, the Chairman of GECOM, though present in her office, neglected or refused to intervene to bring it to a halt.
At a Private Sector Commission Press Conference following the debacle which I had just witnessed at GECOM, I presented a detailed report of what I had seen and heard which was broadcast on News Room. It has never been disputed.
Further perfidy occurred at the GECOM Head Office compound where I was prevented at police barriers from being present, even though an officially Accredited Observer and surrounded by noisy and aggressive green-shirted APNU+AFC supporters without police intervention or protection. As has been reported, Mingo, once more, declared a fraudulent General and Regional Election result.
We are all aware of David Granger’s invitation to Prime Minister, Mia Mottley, for CARICOM intervention, the subsequent visit of a CARICOM team with the agreement of the PPP General Secretary, the royal runaround, rudeness and ultimate insult to the CARICOM visitors by Justice Singh and her GECOM officials and their departure from Guyana. All of this was orchestrated to give time for the APNU+AFC’s election candidate, Ulita Grace Moore, to file an Injunction to block GECOM from holding a recount.
Since then, we all know, and the world with us, of the persistent attempts of APNU+AFC lawyers to prevent a recount of District 4.
It is only the failure of GECOM to deliver a credible result for District 4 that has denied the country a fair and honest election result. It is only District 4 that needs a recount. APNU+AFC now faced with an international demand for a recount is stalling for further time by advocating a national recount.
The Private Sector Commission was perfectly right to dub this a waste of time. Not satisfied with this, however, we now hear cries from the APNU+AFC Commissioners and APNU+AFC inspired editorials and letters in the Chronicle for an audit, not merely a recount, to further extend the imposition of unelected APNU+AFC rule conveniently supported by a supplicant military and obedient police force.
As I write this letter, both in total disgust and deep apprehension of what is yet to follow from the ugly and unveiled determination of the APNU+AFC leadership to prevent the conclusion of an election which they know that they have lost, I read of an appalling attempt by Granger and his party to invent a narrative which reads as a tissue of lies.
I find it unbelievable that David Granger and Sandra Granger and the people I held in respect and regarded with some affection as friends, would lend their names to the garbage they have paid taxpayers money, my money, to an American PR Company to present in Washington DC as the “new narrative”. All of this is a futile attempt to reverse the international condemnation they have brought down on our country and our people.
I am deeply conscious of the fact that those who refuse to accept the results of these elections perceive it all as a matter of one race dominating over another and the rest be dammed. Fortunately, I am not afflicted with that disease and I, therefore, ask this question of those who are. Over what kind of country do you expect to wield power that the majority of the people do not support and for how long and at what cost and for what future? I can only ask that David Granger come to his senses, let the recount quickly take place and save our country from the awful consequences of dictatorial rule.
Yours faithfully,
Kit Nascimento
