Dear Editor,
I was outraged that GECOM Commissioner Vincent Alexander can attempt to justify the non-production of the APNU/ AFC Statements of Poll (SoPs) for certain parts of Region 4 (SN 2022-July-16). I was never in favour of a total recount, see https://www.stabroeknews.com/2020/04/05/opinion/letters/recount-only-the-polling-stations-for-which-mr-mingo-changed-the-procedure/. It caused me to lose time I could have spent otherwise profitably during those 5 months of recount. In conjunction with the rank dunce claim that 34 is a valid majority of 65, which caused my country to be stuff for laughter among international colleagues, it was sufficient for me to rank it as malice aforethought.
I had done my duty as a local election observer during the elections. I was an unpaid volunteer, like all the other Transparency Institute (TIGI) directors, and had to expend my own resources to get to the ACCC counting centre for 7 am and endure the necessary GECOM protocols until often 7 pm. I did all that properly and thoroughly because I considered it my civic duty to let no skullduggery get away under my watch. As a GECOM Commissioner getting a salary, of which I never came close to getting half as much in my life, Mr. Alexander owes us an apology for defending the non-production of the SoPs of the opposition party he represents on the Commission.
His further attempt to justify it based on the discovered errors of a former, now discredited GECOM CEO, can be dispatched as specious on the grounds that two wrongs don’t make a right. It is a perpetuation of the tit for tat mentality of both major sides of the political divide. A righteous person or organization must always do the right thing, no matter what wrong has been done it before. The right thing is to produce the SoPs and take the consequences. Spare us this prolongation of the agony.
Sincerely,
Alfred Bhulai
