THE Private Sector Commission’s (PSC) campaign to deliberately attract the attention of the international community has taken on new and troublesome dimensions, further questioning its impartiality and role as a local observer group, during the current political impasse.

In a letter to the Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Chairman of the PSC Capt. Gerry Gouveia, presents a purported report card of events as they transpired, from his perspective, since the March 2 Genera and Regional Elections. The letter culminates with Capt. Gouveia pleading that “We fear that Guyana is on the brink of a political disaster with very grave consequences, including social upheaval. We plead for the swift assistance of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to act to avert a situation that could lead to a humanitarian crisis.”

Capt. Gouveia’s letter to Washington DC, promulgates the same narrative of the opposition PPP/C, relying heavily on the Bruce Golding-led Organization of American States (OAS) observer group’s narrative, especially as it relates to the tabulation of results from Region Four.

The one-sided lamentations of the letter neglected to address several key issues which have dictated the protracted and vexatious engagement of the courts, namely, that it was the PPP/C that initiated court proceedings blocking GECOM from declaring the results after it had committed its mischief overnight during a guerilla-style invasion of GECOM during the Region Four tabulation process. The mere fact that 12 persons working with the PPP/C were arrested on the night of March 2, 2020 attempting to interfere and remove Statements of Poll (SOPs) from a Region Four station indicates that SOPs could have been compromised, removed or replaced at other locations, especially in more obscure locales or regions.

Capt. Gouveia notes in his observations that “The electoral process for the other nine regions was executed in compliance with electoral laws and those results are not in dispute.” That assertion is problematic and not entirely based on fact as the APNU + AFC coalition along with a number of the smaller parties have requested recounts in various regions.

Finally, Capt. Gouveia states that requests to President Granger and GECOM “have fallen on deaf ears.” Another inaccuracy is the President’s position that he cannot and will not interfere with GECOM’s work has been vindicated by the recent Court of Appeal ruling over the issue of the CARICOM-supervised recount. As GECOM has always maintained through its Chair, Ret’d Justice Claudette Singh, the body is committed to ensuring that fair and credible elections are delivered to the Guyanese people and that it is within their mandate to undertake a recount. GECOM has since agreed to a recount of all votes cast in the March 2 Regional and General Elections in a bid to restore the credibility of the exercise and determine the legitimate will of the Guyanese people. Consequently, the PSC has since said a recount of all votes is “an entire waste of time and wholly unnecessary.” It has confirmed its position that the tabulation of Region Four votes was “clearly fraudulent and has no credibility.”

Capt. Gouveia has used his role as Chairman of the PSC to become a PPP/C mouthpiece and spread their contorted narrative of electoral fraud. At every juncture, the opposition has engaged all manner of mischievous tactics, hidden operatives and compromised persons. It has used spurious and superfluous litigation to completely frustrate the electoral process and has engaged in a relentless campaign of fake news and misinformation. In a series of statements and Facebook performances, Capt. Gouveia has used his influence to contribute to that narrative. The poorly contrived theatrical performances reveal that the Gouveia-led PSC is another pawn in an exhaustive game of political chess. The PSC is compromised and its involvement as an observer group in these elections should be reconsidered.