Submitted by Rickford Burke, President, Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID)
It is unfortunate that, in response to intense solicitation and lobbying from Guyana’s opposition People Progressive Party (PPP) and their lobbyists, the Chairman of the Caribbean Community, Prime Minister of Barbados, Hon. Mia Mottley, as well as the Organization of American States (OAS) and the ABCE Ambassadors in Guyana, are contemptuously interfering in Guyana’s election controversy when this matter is subjucie at the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
The PPP is the most violently racist, brutally oppressive anti-black political organization is the Western Hemisphere. These foreign actors are interfering in the elections on behalf of the PPP. The results of the national recount of ballots cast in the March 2, 2020 elections show that the PPP has 15,000 more votes than the ruling APNU+AFC coalition. However the PPP’s subset of votes contain between 32,000 and 56,000 fraudulent ballots which were obtain through voter impersonation.
The Guyana Police Force, after an investigation by the Chief Immigration Officer, confirmed the presence of votes which were cast in the names of persons who are on the voters list, no longer reside in Guyana and were not present in Guyana on Election Day. The General Registrar of deaths has also furnished death certificates verifying that votes were cast in the names of dead people.
The Chief Election Officer (CEO) has confirmed in his report to the Election Commission that “In respect of the allegations of voter impersonation, responses from the Chief Immigration Officer and review of the General Registrar’s Office Deceased Reports confirmed that these were of substance.” Hence the thousands of fraudulent ballots that were cast through voter impersonation are not mere allegations for an elections petition. They are proven occurrences. These ballots cannot be counted.
The CEO’s report also states that “The summation of anomalies and instances of voter impersonation identified, clearly does not appear to satisfy the criteria of impartiality, fairness, and compliance with provisions of the Constitution and the Representation of the People Act (ROPA) Cap 1:03. Consequently, on the basis of the votes counted and the information furnished from the recount, it cannot be ascertained that the results meet the standard of fair and credible elections.”
This matter was ventilated on June 20, 2020, in the Guyana Court of Appeal, in the Eslyn David v. Chief Elections Officer case. The court ruled on June 22, 2020, that only “valid votes” cast in relation to the March 2, 2020 elections can be counted in accordance with Article 177 (4) of the Guyana constitution and Section 96 of the Representation the People Act. Consequently the CEO has prepared a report of valid votes only, which shows the ruling coalition won the elections. Foreign actors are now attempting to bully GECOM to change the lawful report to give the PPP the victory.
Guyana’s Chief Elections officer does not take instructions from the Chairman of CARICOM; the OAS of Western Ambassadors. The CEO takes instructions from the laws of Guyana; the Elections Commission and the Courts. Guyana is a sovereign State with a functioning, independent judiciary. Guyanese must reject any attempt by Prime Minister Mottley; the OAS and ABCE Ambassadors, to arrogate to themselves the powers of CECOM and Guyanese courts.
These foreign actors are attempting to force GECOM to disregard the ruling of the Guyana Court of Appeal and count fraudulently cast “valid ballots,” instead of “valid votes.” Under the laws of Guyana a valid ballot is a ballot paper which is correctly marked for the party for which the voter intended to vote. If that ballot paper is not correctly marked it is to be rejected as a spoilt ballot. On the other hand, a valid vote is a vote that is lawfully cast in person by an eligible voter whose name appears on the voters list, after that voter has been properly identified by a legitimate form of photo identification as required by law.
Guyanese are not prepared to accept a conflation of with fraudulent ballots with valid votes. We are not prepared to accept unlawful votes, that were cast in the names of dead people and people who live abroad as valid votes. Every Guyanese must resist this attempt by the PPP and international actors, to bully the nation to accept a racist, ethnocratic PPP regime based on fraudulent votes.
Moreover, the previous PPP regime, through death squads and extra judicial killings, murdered over 1400 African Guyanese, with impunity. This genocide was never investigated. There has been no justice. These black lives matter. What is CARICOM and the international community doing to bring about justice for these families?
The very CARICOM, which is speaking in support of the PPP now, was silent then when these African Guyanese young men were killed by the racist PPP regime. The PPP is the most violently racist and brutally oppressive, anti-black political organization is the Western Hemisphere. CGID calls on Guyanese to reject and resist any attempt by CARICOM and international actors to impost a racist PPP regime on our nation – via fraudulent ballots.
The bedrock of any democracy is one man, one vote, and that only legitimately cast, valid votes are counted. Guyana must be no different. CGID therefore calls on CARICOM and the international community to respect the democratic process and the courts of Guyana.
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