Dear Editor,
The PPP/C knows it inserted fake SOPs into the process at several polling stations across Guyana. This is why they are trying to prevent GECOM from making a final declaration and the President from swearing-in while simultaneously clamouring for international sanctions and threatening to instigate socio-political instability. It knows that should the PPP/C file an elections petition after the President is sworn in and, an audit of the elections ordered by the court, this will reveal multiple attempts by the PPP/C to cause layers of electoral fraud the PPP/C tried to engineer.
There is credible evidence that the PPP/C used several tactics to engineer electoral fraud, ranging from manufacturing fraudulent SOPs, voter suppression and vote-buying. All of this served to undermine the constitutional functions of GECOM, influence public opinion on the credibility of elections and blame the APNU+AFC Coalition for the very fraud the PPP/C tried to engineer. One just has to review the contract between Mercury Public Affairs and the PPP/C to understand the lengths, at which the PPP/C sought to deny the will of the Guyanese electorate, sabotage the work of GECOM and promote division and social unrest among people of Guyana.
It has now become clear for all Guyanese to see, irrespective of which political party one supports, that the PPP/C along with a handful of small political parties, some with no more that 10-20 members, clandestinely planned to engineer electoral fraud. The first ploy by the PPP/C was to hire Mercury Public Affairs to “lobby” several politicians, political institutions, regional and international organisations like the OAS and the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The second tactic sought to engineer electoral fraud at multiple levels, which I made mention of in the paragraph above. On this point, let me remind persons that in 2015, GECOM unearthed a massive operation that was engineered by the PPP/C to insert fake SoPs in the tabulation process. The fraudulent SoPs were found while GECOM’s IT Unit tabulated results of the 2015 General and Regional Elections. The third tactic then was to frustrate GECOM from completing the tabulation of votes for Region Four by requesting GECOM abandon the same tabulation method used to tabulate the nine prior regions.
The PPP/C demanded that GECOM desist from tabulating Region Four votes in a spreadsheet based on the declarations from all 10 electoral districts submitted to GECOM by returning officers. Instead, it wanted GECOM to use SoPs for Region Four, more specifically to arrive at the final vote count for Region Four by comparing the results of all party SoPs with those received by GECOM. Initially when GECOM stipulated that the same tabulation method will be used for Region Four as it was for all prior regions, the PPP/C along with its proxies, that its, the few third parties colluding with the PPP/C, protested and claimed electoral fraud. Mind you, the PPP/C, its proxies and the OAS have not provided one bit of evidence although they had cellphones and other recording devices.
After the first round of injunctions and court orders, one of which required GECOM continue or restart the tabulation for Region Four with SoPs presented for said region for all to see, GECOM recommenced its tabulation. After the results showed that the APNU+AFC Coalition received the majority of overall votes and votes for Region Four, the PPP/C again, protested the results and demanded GECOM tabulate the total vote count based the SoPs and collated spreadsheets the PPP/C had and distributed to its proxy small parties.
The fourth tactic, now that the tabulation for each region, Region Four in particular, were undertaken twice, and the APNU+AFC Coalition received the majority of votes on both occasions, the PPP/C now has shifted its demand to a national recount. In the first instance, a recount using SoPs from GECOM and all political parties was demanded. Then again the goal post shifted, the PPP/C then demanded a national recount using the ballots cast which are under sealed lock in ballot boxes and heavy-duty containers guarded by the Guyana Police Force.
A fifth tactic that we have seen since the week of March 13, 2020 was to provoke fear among Guyanese by threatening sanctions. These threats are not related to the conduct of free and fair elections in Guyana, they are a direct result of the international lobbying by Mercury on behalf of the PPP/C.
The sixth tactic employed by the PPP/C is the threat of not recognising the APNU+AFC Government should GECOM declare the results tabulated on the second occasion after the court order instructing GECOM to do same, and the President sworn in on this basis. The General Secretary of the PPP/C stated further that the PPP/C will swear in Irfaan Ali as President of Guyana, another attempt to engineer instability.
Regards,
R. Chung-A-On
