Dear Editor
Guyana held general elections on March 2, 2020, but results are in abeyance. Elections are administered by six bipartisan commissioners, plus a consensus chairman. They constitute the autonomous Elections Commission (GECOM). The Chief Elections Officer (CEO), under the direction of the Commission, supervises the elections. Guyana’s 10 administrative Regions constitute Elections Districts, which are managed by a Returning Officer (RO). Each polling station is manned by a Presiding Officer (PO) who reports to the District RO.
The election law, Chapter 1:03 (93) – Representation of the People Act, mandates the PO of each polling station to, at the close of poll, count and record each ballot cast for the respective political parties on a tally sheet called a Statement of Poll (SOP). The vote count is conducted in the presence of party representatives, who sign off on all SOPs, and observers. POs are then required to transmit the SOPs and sealed ballot boxes to the Election Division RO.

Chapter1:03, Section 95 (1) mandates that: “As soon as practicable after the receipt of all the ballot boxes and the envelopes and packages delivered to him in pursuance of section 93 (10), the Returning Officer shall, in the presence of such of the persons entitled under section 97(1) to be present as attending, ascertain the total votes cast in favour of each list in the district by adding up the votes recorded in favour of the list in accordance with the Statements of Poll, and thereupon publicly declare the votes recorded for each list of candidates.”

The RO’s responsibility is to add up the votes recorded on the SOPs for each party and make a public declaration of those results, then transmit his declaration to the CEO who then makes a combined declarations from all 10 Regions. The declarations from the 10 Regions show that the ruling APNU+AFC coalition won the elections. However, the Region 4 (Demerara Mahaica Region) results have been stymied by PPP obstruction. Region 4, which includes Georgetown, is the most populous Region with over 250,000 voters. Afro-Guyanese dominate the population. It is the most formidable base of the ruling APNU+AFC coalition.

PPP agents continually disrupted the District 4 vote tallying exercise. PPP leaders, some with guns, stormed GECOM’s office and demanded access to computers. They used guerrilla warfare tactics to try to strong-arm GECOM officials to supplant correct results with PPP invented numbers to diminish APNU+AFC votes. Two small parties have attested to this fact. When the RO proceeded with the legally mandated vote tallying and declaration, PPP produced an  injunction from High Court Judge Navindra Singh, barring GECOM from acting on the Region 4 results. The mater is now subjudice before Chief Justice Roxanne George.

Overseas observers, including Western Diplomats, joined the PPP to denounce the results and bandied about allegations of fraud.  In clear coordination with the PPP, Western Diplomats demanded that GECOM abandons the lawfully declared District 4 results, and adopt an extraconstitutional vote “verification” process insisted upon by the PPP. In arrogating the mandate of Guyana’s courts to themselves they declared that “We call on President Granger to avoid a transition of government which we believe would be unconstitutional.”

These incendiary statements exacerbated tensions and incited racial violence. East Indian supporters of the PPP in Region 5 (Mahaica Berbice) commenced a riot. They set fires to the main highway and brandished guns at innocent Afro-Guyanese citizens. They severely assaulted an Afro-Guyanese police woman and chopped two other police officers with a cutlass. Worst, they ambushed a school bus of Afro-Guyanese children and beat them up. Two Police officers and six children are hospitalised. The cutlass-wielding criminal was shot dead by police. Neither the observers nor the PPP have condemned the violent, racist attacks.

Guyana is a beautiful country with beautiful, diverse people. We have the capacity to live together in unity, peace and harmony. Our country is rich with natural resources. The expatriates who Bharrat Jagdeo and the PPP have enlisted to divide and destroy our country, don’t care about our country, peoples or future. Like Jagdeo, their only concern is Guyana’s oil resource. Their strategy is to tear us apart by stoking racial fears and violence. While we fight each other, they will make off with our resources and our nation and we will be left impoverished and divided. Will we let them?  This matter is before our courts. Our history of respecting the decisions of the court is what has enriched our democracy. Let unity and tranquility prevail. Let democracy and the will of the people prevail now and forever. Guyana will rise again!

Regards
Rickford Burke