Dear Editor
IT would seem as though Bharrat Jagdeo is no longer confident about his party defeating the coalition A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) government at the upcoming national and regional elections. And there are very good reasons for this gradual mindset, as the coalition, perceived as being on the ropes in the aftermath of the early rounds of the December 18, no confidence motion, recovered from the surprise of the contrived Jagdeo and Charandass treachery, and has countered very well, bringing its public relations machinery to focus its full weight primarily on the tremendous successes it has had, in taking impacting socio-economic development projects across the 10 administrative regions of Guyana.

Concomitantly, it has been countering and exposing the dishonesty of what continues to be a tasteless, but dirty PPP/C election campaign, built on LIES, DISINFORMATION, MISINFORMATION, AND FAKE NEWS. So sterile has been its so-called plans on offer, it has had to resort to attacking the inspirational president that is David Arthur Granger about his illness. To have gone to such lows, exemplifies a party that is in the wilderness, where it is going to remain. It is resorting to what it does best — deceptions and devious lies as means of shoring up its support base.

But it is his latest act of franticness that should be noted. For him to have written the GECOM, expressing concerns about “inside rigging,’’ is enough to raise eyebrows on not only what he indeed knows about such electoral dishonesty, but also what his party and government did during their regime, while having control of the power of the state to carry out such fraud. Of course, the PPP/C has been guilty of election-rigging during its tenure in office; in fact, the now notorious act of Gocool Boodoo, caught red-handed by Commissioner Alexander, and challenged over the 2011 final stats, sheds a bright light as to the nefarious acts of the PPP and its conspirators. Just how did fake Statements of Poll get into the GECOM in 2015, but quickly detected and publicised, says as much for complicity of the PPP/C in such criminal electoral acts.

GECOM has proven its integrity, by already administering the Local Government Elections (LGEs) of 2016 and 2018 respectively, for which the PPP/C has claimed victory. So what is Jagdeo worried about? How could he make such groundless allegations, which are what his rigging claims really are, when not so long ago, he expressed what amounted to being comforted, by the presence of two former eminent Commonwealth officials, acclaimed electoral experts? This mindset, that is in an all-out frenzied over drive, reminds one of the Republican Senator Joseph Mc Carthy hearings in the United States senate, of the 1950s, which was about alleged communists being present in every nook and cranny of the Federal department of the United States government. Maybe the ‘riggers’, best known to Jagdeo, are either hiding in the labyrinth in the devious cavers of Freedom House, or found somewhere in his sprawling mansion at Pradoville. One is certain that they are not within the precincts of GECOM, under the stewardship of Retired Justice Claudette Singh.
But there is method and a plan to Jagdeo’s wolf cries. He again, supported by the vested-interest class, inclusive of the media, is seeking to inveigle the international community into what I suspect will be a contrived post- election tension, to dispute the election results if they do not go the way of his party. But the international community ought to be wary, and should be, especially given the public reception which their ill-advised and unfair criticism of the coalition being in ‘’Breach of the Constitution’’, received.

This government and the constitutional body GECOM, have continued to assiduously pull out all the stops for free fair, and credible elections. Further, the David Granger–led coalition is about the democratic will of the people. Perhaps, it is not too late for Jagdeo, especially to provide the public with details as to how this internal rigging used to be done during his government?

Regards
Carla Mendonca