Dear Editor,

FOR many years I have been a regular reader of Allan Fenty’s popular column, “Frankly Speaking”. During this time, I have come to respect him as a master of the art of propaganda and admired the occasions he resorted to subtle “mind games” in pursuit of a given objective. I was prompted to write this letter having read his column captioned “Steuups! Can elections (mere) ever be “fair”? published in Stabroek News on Friday, January 24, 2020.

My interest in this particular article is his attempt to suggest that the upcoming National and Regional Elections would be rigged by the PNCR. His accusation cannot be ignored since its political significance has to be seen in the context that it came just after President David Granger assured a visiting US Congress delegation that elections will be free and fair. It is my contention that Mr. Fenty has consciously and deliberately used his column to create doubt by contradicting the President.

Fenty wrote, “Well- well! Is it not Gecom’s “padlock and Chain” Which should secure the boxes? You-all should now accept my long-held “warning” about His Excellency’s Party winning on March 2 by any means necessary (Bamn)!…..”. The “Grand Master” while joining the PPPC against Volda‘s call to APNU+AFC supporters to defend their votes, seek as the saying goes to kill two birds with a stone, in this case, Volda and Granger. While I will not deal with the idea that people defending their votes is a bad thing since I will do so in another letter. I will confine myself to the claim of possible election rigging in the upcoming polls.

Too often many persons both at home and abroad fall victim to the PPPC‘s strategy of raising the issue of election rigging at each election even when the evidence doesn’t support their claims. By invoking pre-1992 practices when the PNC was in office, they have skillfully avoided discussions on more recent elections rigging that took place post-1992 when the PPPC was in office. It is the new forms of rigging introduced by the PPPC that are more relevant to our present situation, which were used by the Chief Election Officers of that period, such as the production of fake Statements of Polls found in GECOM’s tabulation of the votes, that were prevalent since the 1997 elections, stuffing of ballot boxes in far/isolated areas of the country in polling stations manned by polling officials sympathetic to that party. The demographics in this regard are more favourable to the PPPC and take place in areas not under the watchful eyes of local and international observers. The corruption of the operatives in GECOM’s IT department and more importantly Lowenfield’s predecessor who as CEO unlawfully declared results favourable to the PPPC and deliberately used a formula for tabulating the votes which were intended to deliver the 2011 elections to that party with a wide margin. It was only through the vigilance of Commissioner Vincent Alexander that that attempt was thwarted.

More importantly, the empirical evidence on elections since the coming to office of the APNU+AFC demonstrates that the two local government elections held under its stewardship have been free from the accusation of rigging and the opposition PPPC has won both. In light of this indisputable reality, why is the PPPC, its lackeys including Fenty, persisting in raising the old bogie man of rigged elections? In my view, there are two main reasons (1) the PPPC is laying the ground for the international community’s intervention post-March 2 when the election results go against them. They are using post-1992 election reality to camouflage the present reality of free and fair election under the APNU+AFC coalition government (2) political and racial prejudice that plays up African rigging and downplaying or outright denial of Indian rigging.’ I say this as a political activist who had fought against both PNCR and PPPC election rigging and by extension African and Indian.

I stand today as a proud member of the WPA leadership in the APNU+AFC coalition defending its unquestionable record and commitment to free and fair elections. And I stand in the corner of President David Granger and the assurance he has given to the country and the world that the March 2 General and Regional Elections will stand up to scrutiny as those elections that were previously held under his government.

I await a response from the “Grand Master” of propaganda the “honourable” AA. Fenty.
Regards,
Tacuma Ogunseye