OUR recent national elections were pronounced upon as free and fair by both local and international observers and all political parties, except one, accepted the results without any difficulties. The President and his Cabinet have been sworn in and they have assumed their respective offices. It is therefore baffling what A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and its supporters are protesting about. The only logical motive behind these protests could be to put the government under pressure with the hope of destabilising it, because counting the ballots at the place of poll in the presence of representatives of all parties and electoral officials eliminates any possibility of fraud or rigging. Admittedly, there could be some inaccuracies because of human error, but these could be picked up and corrected easily and in any case these inaccuracies would hardly likely have any bearing on the outcome of the elections.
It was the very reason why the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) under the leadership of the indomitable Dr Cheddi Jagan waged a long and relentless battle for counting of ballots at the place of poll. When the battle was about to be won the then President Desmond Hoyte made a last ditch effort to prevent it by arguing that it would have been a “logistical nightmare.” Fortunately, when US former President Jimmy Carter intervened, overnight “the logistical nightmare” disappeared.
Are those that are pushing for protests really putting country first? If they were doing so they would have realised that these protests are doing great harm to this country and therefore one could only conclude that those who are giving fodder to the protests are putting their partisan political interests in front of the national interest. There are some who are arguing that it is the democratic right of people to protest. Certainly it is their democratic right; no one is disputing that. But because it is a democratic right does that mean people must protest? Protests should be used wisely for a genuine cause. Do those protesting have a genuine cause? It would not appear so. In any case, if you ask most Guyanese they will tell you that the elections are over and they want to get on with life and they are not interested in protests; particularly against the backdrop of the approaching festive season.
What makes the protests even more perplexing is the fact that President Ramotar has flung his door open to the opposition to discuss their concerns. This is a promise he made during the elections campaign which he is now clearly fulfilling as he has already met leaders of the opposition and certainly is open to further discussions. So the protests cannot be justified on the ground that the President has insulated himself from the opposition and is refusing to engage them in discussions.
The other poor argument for the protests was getting access to statements of poll which may have had inaccuracies, but that too has no basis as the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has agreed to make those statements of poll, which have been challenged, available to political parties, and other stakeholders. So what else is left to protest about? Or would we have protests for the sake of protests?
Politicians who are genuinely interested in the future of their country certainly would not engage their supporters in counterproductive activities.
But, perhaps those who were engaged in rigging of elections for almost three decades do believe that others are also engaged in rigging and maybe this is the driving force behind the protests. However, the facts do not point in the direction of rigging.
The protests are simply useless, and a waste of time and energy which could be channelled into positive activities that are both beneficial to people and the country as a whole.  They have only succeeded in driving fear and tensions into people which causes only harm. The protests should be therefore called off immediately.