—-says the former Jamaican PM wouldn’t risk reputation for Jagdeo’s friendship

THE People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) jumped to the defence of Bruce Golding, former Prime Minister of Jamaica, on Thursday, after he was called out by the coalition party for making conclusive pronouncements on Guyana’s elections before the process was completed.

“It’s not about supporting the PPP. I see Harmon making some allegation about a friendship between Mr. Jagdeo and Mr. Golding. You think Mr. Golding would put his entire reputation on the line? You think Mr. Golding would put the OAS reputation on the line because of some alleged friendship with Mr. Jagdeo? Mr. Golding is not such an irresponsible person,” PPP/C Executive, Anil Nandlall, said to the media on the matter.

Golding, who led the Organization of American States (OAS) Observer Mission to Guyana for the March 2020 elections, has deemed the declared Region Four results as grossly false.
Only eight days into the national recount, expected to give Guyanese finality on the elections impasse, Golding — a known long-time friend of Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo — claimed that there was a “transparent effort to alter the results of an election” based only on 20 ballot boxes from Region Four.

The entire recount process is not yet halfway through as a total of 2,339 are to be counted. Nonetheless, Golding made such statements during a report on Elections in Guyana made to the OAS Permanent Council on Wednesday. Responding hours later, Executive Member of the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC), Joseph Harmon had stated: “Mr. Golding’s partisanship and unquestionable links to the PPP compromise him and no longer can he be considered an independent observer.”

Harmon said that it is no secret that Golding is a close friend and ally of Jagdeo and had been at the Opposition Leader’s private home, prior to serving as head of the OAS Observer Mission to Guyana. He said that Golding has clearly demonstrated a bias for his close associates and appears now to have become an “unabashed co-conspirator of the PPP/C” as he joined them in the claim that Region Four Returning Officer (RO), Clairmont Mingo, had rigged the elections.

STRONG DEFENCE

However, on Thursday, outside the national recount centre, Nandlall took up strong defence of the former PM, stating he is an internationally recognized statesman chosen to head the OAS Mission because of his integrity. He said that Golding has a duty to report what he observed during Guyana’s elections and doing otherwise would be dereliction of his duty.

Furthermore, Nandlall said that GECOM needs to take responsibility for Mingo’s actions and went on to allege that Mingo, in his declarations, was “executing the political agenda” of the APNU+AFC.

Questioned as to why then does his party have faith in GECOM to conduct the national recount, having accused the Commission of electoral fraud, Nandlall said that it was because the PPP/C has invested in the recount process and pushed to have it conducted.
He continued the PPP/C’s position since commencement of the recount that its Statements of Poll (SOP) were being justified by the Statements of Recount (SORs) coming out of the process.

LET’S AVOID CHAOS

Asked in a subsequent interview why the APNU+AFC has not released its SOPs for similar comparison, APNU+AFC member, David Patterson said that the party will instead be comparing the total tabulation from each completed region in the recount process with the previous declaration.

Though the party has claimed victory based on the previous declaration, Patterson said that the APNU+AFC will refrain from acts which can cause dispute during the recount process which remains paramount to previously released SOPs. “It is the Statements of Recount that matters now. We want a winner to be determined. This exercise is not a question of comparison, in my opinion, it’s a question of determining a winner and a next government,” he said.

Meanwhile, Patterson, who said that his party will also be further addressing the numbers raised by Golding, noted, as Harmon mentioned, that the former PM ignores the many anomalies coming out of the recount. “It’s strange that Mr. Golding can jump, right away, to [speak on] the integrity of Mr. Mingo and the entire GECOM staff without mentioning even a fleeting reference to those particular issues,” Patterson said.

A BLIND EYE

The PPP/C has been pushing strongly against objection to a range of issues such as missing poll books, missing Official List of Electors (OLE), missing PE envelopes and unsigned oaths of identity within ballot boxes. They have also dismissed concerns that persons who are either deceased or who have migrated were recorded as voting. Harmon had also called to question Golding’s blind eye to the same, stating: “He [Golding]… ignores the numerous instances of irregularities, discrepancies and anomalies which have been uncovered in the ongoing recount process amounting to fraud on the Guyanese people – dead people voting, persons who are not in Guyana voting, unsigned affidavits of identity in boxes. Mr. Golding instead focusses on a declaration which had already been ruled on by the court and other documents issued by the People’s Progressive Party. He seems to believe that whatever the PPP puts out is authentic, ignoring the fact that a full statement has not been made by the Guyana Elections Commission.”

On the contrary, CARICOM — which has fielded a scrutinising team as the lead observers to the recount process — has acknowledged that the scrutiny being imparted to each ballot is “for the satisfaction of all the contending political parties, and each observer mission.”

In a message through Permanent Representative of Barbados to the OAS, Ambassador Noel Lynch, the Regional body said that it has no interest in which political party wins the election but given that the two major political parties both believe that they have won the elections, there should be no fear of the current recount.

In Harmon’s opinion, Golding’s statement, coming from a former CARICOM Head of Government, “smacks of gross disrespect for a sovereign state and for the ongoing process which has been supported by CARICOM”. Patterson told the media that just for District One — completed today — the anomalies found by his party thus far are within the hundreds. Meanwhile, Harmon has called on the all Guyanese to disregard the “distant voices” and pay attention to the unfolding of the recount.