During a State Department briefing yesterday, United States (US) Secretary of State Michael Pompeo told reporters that “there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration” and dismissed as ridiculous a claim that President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede would undermine US efforts to promote democratic transitions in foreign states.
“We’re going to count all the votes. There’s a process. The Constitution lays it out pretty clearly… I’m very confident that we will count – and we must count – every legal vote. We must make sure that any vote that wasn’t lawful ought not to be counted. That dilutes your vote if it’s done improperly. We got to get that right. And when we get it right, we’ll get it right,” Pompeo declared.
For Guyanese these words trigger a peculiar case of déjà vu as they mirror the claims made by former President David Granger and the APNU+AFC coalition during the contentious five months which followed the March 2 elections.
During that time Pompeo made several statements and tweets on the issue underlining Washington’s determination to ensure the final result reflects the will of the people.
In July he specifically called on Granger to concede.
“Today, I am announcing visa restrictions on individuals responsible for or complicit in undermining democracy in Guyana. Immediate family members of such persons may also be subject to restrictions. The Granger Government must respect the result of democratic elections and step aside,” he said during a press briefing.
Yesterday, Pompeo was reminded that his department frequently sends out statements encouraging free and fair elections abroad and for the losers of those elections to accept the results. Asked specifically at the State Department whether Trump’s refusal to concede discredit those efforts, Pompeo said the questions was ridiculous.
“That’s ridiculous and you know it’s ridiculous, and you asked it because it’s ridiculous…You asked a question that is ridiculous. This department cares deeply to make sure that elections around the world are safe and secure and free and fair, and my officers risk their lives to ensure that that happens. They work diligently on that,” he declared.
Pompeo also made a highly heralded visit to Guyana in September during which he said “My presence here is to congratulate the Guyanese people on the enormous success they had in holding a democratic election and a peaceful transition to power, and it was quite remarkable to watch. We’re proud of what they’ve done. We think it will do great things for the people of Guyana and for the region”.
As recently as October 20th this year, addressing the 50th General Assembly of the Organisation of American States, Pompeo said: ”I was fortunate to be in Guyana just last month to congratulate President (Irfaan) Ali on winning a free and fair election, and I know OAS support was crucial in upholding democracy for the Guyanese people”.
The APNU+AFC coalition like Trump has claimed that thousands of fraudulent votes were recorded including votes from electors who were dead or non-resident on Election Day.
In June, Granger appeared on Benschop Radio and endorsed a controversial report by Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield which invalidated the votes of 25% of Guyanese electors.
During that interview Granger insisted that the elections should be decided not just on quantity of votes cast but on the quality of those votes.
“What we have found is that there is need for a deeper investigation into the anomalies and the irregularities that occurred countrywide. This has been done and has been a feature of the report the CEO presented to the Commission,” he maintained, adding that “It is quite in order for the Chief Election Officer to rule that invalid votes cannot be counted as valid.”
“It is unacceptable for the CEO to present a report that doesn’t take into account the fact that these irregularities have occurred and have affected the validity of the votes…this is the reason why the Court of Appeal ruled votes must mean valid votes, if votes are fraudulent or if votes exceeds the number of persons on a list they cannot be valid votes,” the caretaker president declared.
His claims have been echoed by Donald Trump who has claimed that “irregularities” in the counting of mail ballots equal and other widespread fraud has tainted the elections.
Yesterday, US Attorney General William Barr allowed federal prosecutors to probe alleged irregularities in the presidential election directing that inquiries could be made by federal prosecutors “if there are clear and apparently-credible allegations of irregularities that, if true, could potentially impact the outcome of a federal election in an individual State”.
This along with several lawsuits filed in several battleground states have led another Trump appointee head of General Services Administration Emily Murphy to refuse to write a letter that will effectively recognize the winner of the presidential election and grant government resources and access to the transition team of the Joe Biden administration.
