— unless he is willing to disclose intellectual authors behind electoral fraud

Guyana wants to move forward but justice must prevail in the aftermath for those guilty of electoral fraud, and the need for reform at GECOM must be a priority before the next elections.

This sentiment was agreed and shared by businessman, Peter Ramsaroop; presidential candidate of The New Movement (TNM), Dr. Asha Kissoon; and executive member of the United Republican Party (URP), Rawle Aaron, during an online interview on Friday.

“If Mingo was told to put the nation at risk and as a hostage, he has to pay the price, unless he brings out who made him do it, and those that are behind the scenes must know that somebody will talk of the fact that they did cheat the elections,” Ramsaroop said.
District Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo, was, on Tuesday afternoon, arrested at his home at Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara in connection with allegations that he committed fraud during the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections.

Ramsaroop said allegations of fraud will be investigated by police and many statements were taken from persons who were in the Ashmin Building on Hadfield Street, when Mingo went rogue.

“There is no witch-hunting going on, we want democracy to prevail in Guyana continuously, we should never have to wonder why one person in GECOM should hold an entire country hostage for five months; it is about justice and democracy,” he said.
Adding that the young generation will know of the struggle for democracy, Ramsaroop said such will remain intact and GECOM must be reformed.
“The Mingos and Lowenfields of the world should never be allowed to do what they have done to Guyana again,” Ramsaroop said.
The businessman said there is no legal right for any GECOM staff to hide SoPs [statements of polls] from the nation and if there is then GECOM has to change such in its reform.

“To have to go through a recount process to prove what was the March 2 results, tells me something is wrong with the process,” Ramsaroop said. “When Mr. Mingo decides to talk and I hope he does, the intellectual authors of this electoral fraud must come to justice and with that we will learn more of what needs to be changed before the next elections.”

Further, he said technology should be embraced for the rapid declaration of elections results based on the use of fingerprints in the voting process.
He said there are many ways that can be explored before the next elections and voting on paper can still remain for audit purposes.
Adding that the recount process showed that Guyana has a robust electoral system, Ramsaroop said “APNU has to be in a dream world in saying thousands of persons voted that should not have voted, dead people and migrant voters; it’s impossible for that to happen even with the paper system, but if we automate it we will take out the subjective issues out of that process and get to a much number-driven elections.”

SYSTEM NOT FLAWED
He said the elections results delay stemmed from Mingo’s refusal to use the SoPs which show that the system is not flawed.
“It’s the fact that they rigged the system when they found out that they are not going to win the elections. They went in the top floor in the Ashmin building and figured out how they were going to fake the numbers,” Ramsaroop said.

He said in total, APNU+AFC lost the elections by 25,000 votes and there was no room for cheating based on those numbers.
Meanwhile, Dr. Asha Kissoon, who was presidential candidate of The New Movement (TNM), said the March 2, 2020 election went downhill after Mingo started getting sick and later tried to announce false declarations from a spreadsheet.

“That’s where all the parties had a clash with the APNU+AFC because they tried to support those numbers. My party and other parties that were there stood up and said we would not accept it. Of course, it all came down to fake signatures, prominent party members putting their signatures on declarations that were not officially made, and it was a pin in everybody side at that moment,” Dr. Kissoon said.

Picking the positives out of the scenario, Dr. Kissoon said the struggles brought about unity for the parties standing up for democracy and throughout the process, along with the support of the international community and international observers, democracy prevailed in the end.
Dr. Kissoon said civil society needs to play a more active role on the GECOM board when it comes to commissioners, which is traditionally ruled by two political parties.

“Through the process we noted the deadlock vote, it was so obvious that whichever political party the commissioner was assigned from would vote on that side. We need to get rid of the sides, that is the problem with GECOM right now,” the TNM leader said.
She said there was also a need for constitutional reform to fix flawed laws making room for civil society and joinder parties that are in opposition.

MUST BE REMOVED
Adding that all the corrupted staff at GECOM should be removed, Dr. Kissoon said the cancer must be removed from GECOM before it spreads.
“Start afresh, we have five years to prepare,” she said. “With time and constitutional reform, there is hope for Guyana.”
Executive member of the United Republican Party (URP), Rawle Aaron, said a new government has been sworn in and there are many issues that occurred during the five-month period that need to be investigated and presented to the public.

“People must not fall asleep and forget what were the events that took place or transpired during that period of time, we had the representative of Region Four, Mr. Clairmont Mingo, making declarations from a spreadsheet and not from the SoPs. Persons are beginning to forget that and we must remember the judge ordering Mr. Mingo to ensure that the declarations were done in a transparent way,” Aaron said.

He continued: “He (Mingo) then took the results presentation the said afternoon to the GECOM offices in Kingston. And again another parade of false declarations from SOPs. All the political parties there asked to examine the SoPs so that we can see that you are presenting results from authentic SoPs and that was refused.”

The URP executive said society must wake up and recall that it was a fight and a struggle by a collective set of political parties that resulted in the swearing-in of President, Irfaan Ali.

Discarding the alignment of smaller parties being supportive of the PPP/C in the fight for democracy, Aaron said the URP was aligned with the truth and any political party “worth their salt” will not allow the trampling of democracy.
“Of course, persons are going to label you, but they are labelling us in relation to an act that the URP participated in and believed will cause democracy to prevail in Guyana, and if we had the opportunity to do it again we would do that again in relation to democracy,” the URP executive said.

MOVING GUYANA FORWARD
Noting that President Ali had stated, before and after, that he was willing to work with stakeholders who are willing to move the country forward, Aaron said the URP stance had always been committed to moving Guyana forward.

“I believe that Dr. Ali wants to ensure that every Guyanese participates in this country and enjoys the benefits,” Aaron said.
Focusing on GECOM and sharing recommendations, he said once a political party is acknowledged as a contestant, that party should have a representative on the GECOM board.

“If there were other political parties sitting on the GECOM commission and it was acknowledged that democracy was under siege then they would have been able to vote otherwise and there would not have been any deadlock,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dr. Asha Kissoon noted that only in togetherness Guyana can move forward. TNM, ANUG and LJP hold an independent seat in parliament.
“We would not be joining with any of the major parties and that alone discredits any talk that we are a part of the PPP/C or the APNU+AFC. What we have been doing is uniting our efforts with the current government because it extended that hand and we have been saying it from the beginning, a time needs to come for inclusive governance where the strengths of the political parties are put together,” Dr. Kissoon said.

She explained that, throughout the campaign trail, her party had been touting the idealism of opposition working with the current government to find solutions to make Guyanese lives better.

“Of course we are paying attention, and the relationship that is being built now allows us to speak out if something happens that we believe is not in the best interest of Guyanese, so it’s a way forward,” Dr. Kissoon said.