Submitted by Rickford Burke
The election impasse between the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and the opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) persists without mitigation, except a lull for an imminent Supreme court ruling on the sub judice matter. The impasse arose because opposition leader Bharrat Jagdeo and the PPP fraternity, including some private sector actors, are seeking to impose a counterfeit “birthright” to dominance of Guyana. The actions of this group of “Orwellians” are imperiling the rule of law and democracy.
Their exudation of this contrived supremacy has engendered a specious morality where, for them, the law is malleable and applies to them only on their terms. It is this hegemony of lawlessness which they advance as their concept of “democracy.” In reality, this pathology is the Orwellian Entitlement Syndrome (OES).
Fantasy Superiority:
Their fantasy superior citizenship fuels their drive to manipulate the law on a presumption that they alone control commerce, industry and capital in the country. Their contempt for authority suggests the thinking that such affluence entitles them to domination and, more so, flagitious conduct. It is no wonder that they attempt to challenge judges who rule against them with impunity. And no wonder they fell they can abuse and threaten police officers who disallow their lawlessness with dismissal, if they return to government.
The masquerader in chief of their apparent junta has committed treasonous acts against the state. He has also threatened to “go after” political opponents and their families presumably with death squads much like the old days. This insidious rhetoric has aroused sagaciousness in Guyanese. It is easy to recognize that the brazen effrontery is given oxygen by pronouncements from international actors who’s irresponsible narrations are talking points provided by PPP lobbyists. Someone recently remarked that when the unrest they are instigating begins, which of the instigators will survive? Do we need further evidence of how provocative and combustible this rhetoric is in a volatile environment?
Foreign Observers:
Foreign observers have pronounced that results from Region 4 are “unverified,” because the Returning Officer (RO) did not entertain objections during the vote ascertainment process. The PPP has weaponized these uninformed statements. They purport that “unverified” results are fraudulent results. However, Chief Justice Roxanne George, in her March 11, 2020 judgment, held that the RO must use numbers he received from presiding officers, and that “verification” is not provided for in law.
No doubt, some of the Observers’ pronouncements emboldened Jagdeo and his comrades. They stormed the Elections Commission with guns and inspired riots. Supporters in Region 5, chopped police officers and assaulted innocent citizens and school children. Victims still await charges and prosecutions of the perpetrators.
The Elections Results:
Declarations by the ten ROs show that the APNU+AFC coalition has won the elections. Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Mr. Keith Lowenfield, has submitted his report to Commission Chairman, Justice Claudette Singh, and the awaits the final declaration of the results. However, the PPP is insisting on a ballot recount in District 4, although GECOM has already denied all recounts on account of nonconformity to the law. Also, the statutory period for recounts has long expired.
A subsequent CARICOM recount initiative, which was widely viewed as illegal, was halted by the Supreme Court, pursuant to a lawsuit. This case resumed today, March 25, 2020, before Justice Franklyn Holder; who has been subjected to abominable, intimidation attempts and bigoted attacks on his family by PPP websites.
The Law and the Courts:
Our courts exist to interpret and enforce the law. The law proscribes challenges to elections results, except by way of an election petition. The Orwellians believe that they are above the law. Hence, they are circumventing an elections petition and are using the recount provision and court injunctions to challenge the election results. They must not be allowed to manipulate the law and the court for political expediency, as if the court is a personal football.
The no confidence motion cases saw PPP lawyers eloquently and vociferously arguing that Charandass Persaud’s election to Parliament can only be challenged through an elections petition. Chief Justice Roxanne George and the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) agreed and ruled in their favor. Now, in 2020, they’ve come to the court with a reversed argument.
PPP’s history of subverting democracy and the law:
Laws are constant. They don’t change based on which party is in government or based on a political party’s misfortune. The December 20, 1997 Stabroek news editorial precisely delineated the PPP’s conduct when opposition parties challenged the tabulation of votes in the December 15, 1997 election. Quote: “The Chairman of the Elections Commission, Mr. Doodnauth Singh, yesterday declared the presidential candidate of the People’s Progressive Party, Mrs. Janet Jagan, the duly elected President of Guyana even though the final count of votes was not complete and the votes in quite a number of boxes remained to be counted,” end quote.
In the December 15, 1997 elections, PPP Returning Officers refused to “verify” SOPs and denied all requests for recounts. They merely declared the results and closed the process. When word leaked that the opposition PNCR was seeking an injunction to stop the declaration of the results, the PPP secretly and unlawfully swore Mrs. Janet Jagan in as President, while votes were still being counted. Mrs. Jagan and her bodyguards later assaulted the chief marshal of the Supreme Court who served her with the injunction, which she pitched to the ground. Where was their commitment to democracy and the rule of law then?
The law in 2020 is the same as 1997:
Subsequently they made substantial submissions to the court detailing why the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter except when the PNCR files an elections petition to challenge the elections results. Now they have abandoned this mantra which they intrepidly proclaimed in 1997 and in 2019. Ironically, the PNCR filed an election petition, which was heard by then Supreme Court Justice Claudette Singh – the incumbent Chairman of GECOM.
Justice Singh vitiated the December 15, 1997 elections results and ordered fresh elections.
Guyana is a functioning democracy with an independent and efficient judiciary. The judicial process must be allowed to function without external interference. The process worked in 1997 and in 2019 when the court ruled against the government in the no confidence vote.
Interference in the elections:
Western countries must not be allowed to abrogate the mandate of the courts of Guyana to themselves. Statements like “a transition of government…would be unconstitutional”… without Guyanese courts so ruling, and ..regardless of how the Guyana Supreme Court rules the installation of a new government based on the declared results will be deemed illegitimate..’ must be rejected. Guyana is a sovereign, democratic state. Interference in Guyana’s elections, to tip the scale for a particular party, as well as preemption of its courts, violate international law.
The court is arbiter of elections disputes:
This elections matter is before our courts. Guyana’s history of obeying judgments of the court has enriched our democracy. GECOM, not the government, controls the elections process. The Orwellians hiding behind the skirts of diplomats and calling for sanctions to hurt Guyanese and destabilize the Caribbean, are the same dastardly cowards who perpetrated genocide in Guyana.
Their foreheads are marked from their crimes of extrajudicial killings, gun and drug smuggling and money laundering. But for how long can their lobbyist, Mercury, hoodwink world powers? How long more can the Orewllians play deceptive games in the arena of international politics? We will see!
As I have said let the courts decide the matter. Both sides have the right to file injunctions .Surely it cannot be fair for one side to file injunctions and everything is deemed honky-dory, but it is deemed as underhand when the other side files for injunctions. I again ask what was the role of the Canadian government in the whole affair that started this whole thing. I say again that the Amerindians should expel both groups from their country.
@Dr. Lucas
You are being naive about the issue affecting Guyana. Everybody has the right to file. However we know the underlying issues remain the same as they have for the last 50 years. Three weeks since an election and what. Nothing has changed court ruling to come or not.
@ David March 26, 2020 5:49 AM
In what way? I am aware of the race problem. All I am saying is that both sides should be able to file without there being noise about one side being underhand and the other side squeaky clean.
@Dr. Lucas
Long after th decision is handed down the racial and political divisions will continue to hamper progress in Guyana. The court case is a continuing manifestation, the warts that have become cancerous.
@ David March 26, 2020 6:14 AM
You have a point. That is why Guyanese of both races have fled the country. It is a pity that the original inhabitants are not in a position to drive them out. As I said previously I expect a civil(race)war.
@Dr. Lucas
What a shame given its natural resources. Guyana is a big let down to compromising the Caricom experience.
USA justice dept indicts Venezuelan President Maduro on drug trafficking charges
Los Angeles Times
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-03-26/justice-department-indict-venezuela-president-nicolas-maduro-on-federal-drug-trafficking-charges
Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela, has been indicted on U.S. federal drug-trafficking charges, a major escalation in the Trump administration’s campaign to force Maduro from power, according to a federal official briefed on the matter.
@ Robert Lucas,
There is no need for a civil war. As I have already indicated it would make more sense if the country were partioned into three. The only question that remains would be how could this be equitably achieved.
@ TLSN March 26, 2020 12:22 PM
Let me repeat what I have stated else where on this Blog: 96 percent for the Amerindians and three percent each for the others. Any noise by the others should result in them being ejected all together.
By Staff Editor March 26, 2020
On behalf of the U.S. government, Acting Assistant Secretary for U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs Michael G Kozak today summoned Guyana’s Ambassador to the US Riyad Insanally to warn against the illegal installation of a government here.
On his Twitter feed, Kozak said: “I summoned #Guyana Ambassador to the U.S. Riyad Insanally to convey our firm position that any government sworn in based on flawed election results would not be legitimate. Every vote must be counted”.
It is the latest high-level intervention by a US government official over fears that GECOM may attempt to swear in President David Granger again despite widespread reports of fraud in the region Four tallying.
Kozak had previously warned of consequences of electoral fraud.
https://www.stabroeknews.com/2020/03/26/news/guyana/us-summons-guyana-ambassador-to-warn-against-illegal-swearing-in/
Why the hell doesn’t the US stop meddling in the internal affairs of other countries? It has no moral authority to condemn any country.
@ robert lucas March 27, 2020 2:18 AM
“Why the hell doesn’t the US stop meddling in the internal affairs of other countries? It has no moral authority to condemn any country.”
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Is that you, Bricky??? Lol!!
Now is the time for some form of American-imposed racial entente cordiale in that politically cursed but resources-blessed country formerly called B G as a result of Covid and with the oil bonanza pipedream about to burst.
How about making Guyana ‘great again’ as it was up to the 1960’s attracting thousands of immigrants of various racial hues including Bajans to its developing industries and fields of natural riches?
What do you think would happen if Venezuela- as a way to get back at the bully farther North- invades Guyana under the guise of national security arising from the current political instability and racial divisiveness which could lead to the breakup of the nation state called ‘English-speaking’ Guiana?
Which Caricom ‘nation state’ is up next on the podium of racial strife and political apartheid?
Trinidad to trigger the breakup of Caricom as every ‘island’ dog begins to fight for its own share of the remaining economic bones stripped of the tourism meat by Covid-19?
As you are quite aware, any geographical dividing-up of Guyana along ethnic lines (as you are proposing) would be the silver bullet to rip apart the wider Caribbean and put a time bomb under the regional integration project called Caricom in which only a politically-stable Guyana can perform as a ‘grandmaster’ player.
@ Robert Lucas
The same way CARICOM leaders correctly intervened and tried to bring some calm to the situation in Guyana , it’s time for the same leaders to tell the USA that whatever government is declared to be duly elected will be legitimate and not dependent on any validation from the USA. All progressive forces must watch this development closely. CARICOM did not tell Florida how to count votes or the USA government to halt voter suppression especially against blacks.
@ William Skinner March 27, 2020 9:16 AM
Agreed.
@ Miller March 27, 2020 8:12 AM
Have you ever heard of a partisan war. In those jungles. It is great for ambushes. So watch yourself if you side with the enemies of the Amerindians
Dear David: Who is the author of the above essay?
@Simple Simon
Thanks
@William Skinnen March 27, 2020 9:16 AM “CARICOM did not tell Florida how to count votes or the USA government to halt voter suppression especially against blacks.”
Perhaps CARICOM should have. Perhsaps CARICOM should still do so.
Wrong is wrong whether in Guyana, lorida, the United States or Barbados.
We understand that CARICOM is not a military nor political threat to the USA, but when the USA does wrong, CARICOM should raise its voice, even if it cannot raise arms nor economic muscle.
@ Silly Woman
Let us not forget that when it was in their interest, the USA had military bases in Barbados and Trinidad. That was when it did not want us to become too cozy with Cuba. Also don’t forget the invasion of Grenada. Once the Cold War between the USA and Russia faded; the US had no more real interest in the region. You will note it’s hand now in Venezuela- there is oil there. We must also pay attention to the recent oil take off in Guyana. CARICOM may not be a super power but at certain times position is the art of gunnery.
However your point is well taken.