Dear Editor,
THE commercial arm of the opposition PPP, the Private Sector Commission (PPP-PSC), has activated its general elections strategy in support of the PPP’s failing election campaign.
The PPP-PSC joined former PPP attorney- general Anil Nandlall to condemn PNCR Chairman Volda Lawrence for calling on APNU+AFC coalition Elections Day workers to be vigilant after the close of poll on March 2, 2020, so as to ensure no one tampers with ballots or ballots boxes.

Ms. Lawrence is right. During the PPP regime, vote tallies on Statements of Poll (SOPs) were tampered with and changed. Ballot boxes were also handled by PPP members who were unauthorised to do so. Of course, these criminal acts were beneficial to the PPP, and were not condemned by the PSC.

It appears that Ms. Lawrence’s call for vigilance has placed a spotlight on, if not disrupted, plans by the PPP and its affiliates to rig the elections by tampering with vote tallies again. Voters must not let this happen again.

Ms. Lawrence’s call for vigilance is the exact same call made by PPP executive Clement Rohee on April 18, 2015, just before the May 11, 2015 general elections. If such vigilance was good for the PPP and PPP-PSC then, it’s good for APNU+AFC coalition supporters and elections workers now.

The PSC appears to have endorsed Rohee’s call for PPP supporters to be vigilant. This blatant PPP-PSC double standard renders it a disgrace and lacking in integrity. It is a Mickey Mouse circus club of good old boys that cannot be taken seriously.

Guyanese must dismiss the PPP-PSC diatribe as PPP propaganda hogwash, and appropriately accord this PPP front organisation the laughing stock status it deserves. The Guyanese people have expressed the view that a certain entity closely affiliated to the PPP is allegedly mostly made up off PPP financiers who allegedly benefited from the criminal enterprises which the PPP regime enabled; the narcotics trade, money laundering, bank fraud and tax evasion.

Clearly, the benefactors of the PPP’s elections campaign are working overtime to defeat President David Granger and the APNU+AFC coalition, in their quest to restore the good old days when they benefited from the organized crime promoted and enabled by the then PPP state apparatus.

Several male ministers of government have repeated the same call for vigilance without being attacked. Guyanese understand that progressive female political leadership is the antithesis of the value system cultivated by the chauvinistic men in the PPP and affiliated PSC. This bigotry is a driving force inspiring the attacks on the progressive female chairman of the PNCR.

Guyanese must reject the partisan, sexist utterings of these misogynists, and make Ms. Lawrence’s call to vigilance a clarion call of the election campaign. I call on citizens all over Guyana to come out after the close of poll; to be vigilant and take care that their ballots are not tampered with prior to being deposited at the Election Commission. Every APNU+AFC coalition member, surrogate and speaker must now call for post voting vigilance. This must become the Lawrence challenge!

Regards,
Rickford Burke