Dear Editor
FROM the outset, I must stress my steadfast conviction that APNU+AFC have, without an iota of doubt, won the March, 2020 elections. Having said that, my aim today is not to elucidate the APNU+AFC victory; rather, I will be taking that rocky path of a deep reflective contemplation, with a view to developing a better understanding of the term “credible elections.”

For I am forced down this virgin path, to explore the etymological semantics underpinning this term, since many have coined their personally convenient definitions that in my humble opinion is being abused. The fact remains that every year we, descendants of slaves and indentured labourers, would seek out a term that will be used as restrictive chains and shackles for 12 lunar months, as we slavishly follow it. We would remember that 2019 was the year of “dual citizenship,” where all creatures walking, flying, crawling and swimming were echoing the phrase that Nigel Hinds struggled to truthfully divorce himself from. Now, the year of the perfect 2020 vision, we have enslaved ourselves to the cliche “credible elections.” And even as I tried to untangle myself from the confinement of these slave chains, I did indulge myself in personal interrogation to ascertain if the credibility of the elections is only assessed on E-day? The rationale underpinning this troubling personal interrogation is to better understand the irrational position taken by PPP, supported by the Ambassadors of the ABC&EU countries to achieve an end which is nigh impossible. Even before I proceed, I know many may wish to include the minion parties and the PSC in the cohort of irrational creatures, but in my view they are very much inconsequential; hence, should be viewed as what they really are, side shows.

The political party whose green and yellow blood pumps through my veins, is on record ad nauseam, as being the lone champion for house-to-house registration. They fought tooth and nail to have a credible voters’ list to go into this “mother of all elections.” They, like most rational Guyanese, recognised that the voters’ list was heavily pregnant, for want of a better word. It still remains unexplained as to how can a country with a population of 750,000 have over 650, 000 eligible electors? How can a country have 87% of its population over the age of 18yrs? How can a country with over 200,000 school-aged children have 650,000 eligible electors? Surely, that 650K must include the dead and those who have permanently migrated. Why only the APNU+AFC recognised this as a potential problem? Can the elections be credible when the voters’ list is not credible? For we all know that the elections are birthed out of the voters’ list. Therefore, if the voters’ list is not credible, then the election which is a product of the flawed list, cannot be credible. Clearly, whatever flawed DNA, please excuse my medical description, that is in the list will be inherited by the elections. To provide an analogy for clarity, if both your wife and yourself are the archetypal African, but she delivers a baby that is the clone of Kim Jong-un, I’m confident that we would be astonished, for we expect, via the machinery of genes and DNA, that a product from us should look like us. Therefore, why did we foolishly expect a flawed, highly pregnant voters’ list to produce perfect elections?

Therefore it begs the question, when the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was demanding credible elections from a flawed voters’ list, he was clearly giving GECOM a basket to fetch water. When the U.S. Ambassador Sarah Lynch, who is now lecturing us on credible elections, having been aware of the highly pregnant flawed voters’ list, then she is demanding the impossible of turning water to wine. When Canada’s High Commissioner Lilian Chatterjee chose not to barge into the GECOM office when she saw that the voters’ list was very flawed, but now joins the choir singing credible elections, then she was better served by asking us to raise Lazarus from the dead. When the British High Commissioner Greg Quinn made no objections to an election with a flawed list, but is now demanding impossible credible elections, then he has completed the quartet and was better off demanding we produce water from stone. The fact remains that they must have known that the elections were doomed to fraud from the very day we went into the election with a flawed, bloated list. Yet today they are demanding that we must slavishly produce credible elections or face international sanctions. The fact remains that anyone who is now demanding credible elections should have supported APNU in demanding a credible voters’ list. The fact remains that the ABC&EU were all silent, therefore the question is. Why are they vocal now?

The PPP is moaning about fraudulent elections. They cried the loudest; as a result, those who do not understand Guyanese culture, wrongly believed that they are the victims. Many who are presently supporting PPP turned a blind eye to the fact that the PPP fought tooth and nail to ensure that the list remained heavily pregnant. They refuse to contemplate that the PPP are not the victims, rather they are the architect of this electoral impasse. The fact remains that Jagdeo wanted a bloated list for nefarious means.

His intent was crystal clear for those who chose to see. When he knew he won that battle of maintaining a bloated list, he immediately travelled to America and Canada to instruct Guyanese to return home to vote. He knew that was never possible since the vast majority are employed to do menial jobs. The fact is “Return home to vote” was a euphemism to post their ID cards or passports to Guyana, then the PPP will take care of the rest. Further, Jagdeo clearly knew that the dead on the voters’ list aren’t rising from their comfortable coffins to vote.They have earned their rest and will not be getting up to cast ballots. That was easily sorted by his speech, “taking back our country.” The “Our” meant the dead and the living. The living will simply be the proxy voters for the dead.

This should be an invaluable lesson for us all that elections do have genes and DNAs. These genes are the machinery that is utilised to ensure inheritance. We will continue to produce fraudulent elections unless that flawed, highly pregnant voters’ list is allowed to abort all those who are not eligible to be in her womb. Failing that, we will relive 2020. For those who are now demanding credible elections, I must say it is too late. The horse has already bolted.
Regards
Dr. Mark Devonish