Dear Editor,

SENATOR Roxanne Persaud is plain wrong to assail the US’s role in Guyana’s elections of March 2, 2020. The Senator was very critical of the US when she rose on the NY Senate floor to utter comments commemorating Guyana’s 51st Republic anniversary last month. Senator Roxanne, an Afro-Guyanese American who represents 19th District in Brooklyn, lambasted the US’s role in guaranteeing democracy in Guyana. Senator Roxanne came across as misinformed, and misrepresented the outcome of the election as well as America’s role in it. Local and international observers, the media, diplomats and the global community of nations would not agree with her statement criticising the US Government that supported the democratic outcome. Apparently, she relied on biased information from, and pandered to, her base of support in Brooklyn rather than take an objective stand on democracy.

Somehow, because the US insisted that the APNU-led coalition accept the democratic will of the voters, the Senator concluded that the US decided the winner of the elections. She is plain wrong. The Guyana voters decided the outcome when they cast their ballots on March 2; I was in Guyana as a reporter and travelled around, including spending time with foreign observers. After the votes were counted that very evening, observers and the media reported that the opposition PPP had won the elections. The ruling APNU claimed victory, and said that the election was free and fair, free from interference, and the best conducted elections in decades. However, a day after the election, attempts to declare the right winner was stopped by rogue elements within GECOM, who then made several efforts to rig the elections. The Chair of GECOM, diplomats, and international observers also praised Election Day procedures. Issues arose over the counting of ballots a day after the election, when APNU realised it had lost. Diplomats, observers, and the media urged APNU to present its SOPs, the public documents of vote counts that were posted outside polling stations. Elements within GECOM refused to use the official Statements of Poll to declare a winner of the elections.

The matter was taken to the court. Chief Justice, Honorable Roxanne George, ruled in the High Court that the official Statements of Poll must be used to declare a winner. Representatives from the ABCE, CARICOM, OAS, Commonwealth of Nations, UN and other organisations and countries witnessed the attempt to flagrantly rig the election; they demanded that the official Statements of Poll be used to declare the winner. They condemned the effort to rig.  The US and the international community simply asked that the will of the people of Guyana be accepted. The PPP/C, after five months of delay, was declared the winner on August 2.  Clearly, Senator Roxanne made a terrible mistake to assail the US government for being a neutral observer in the election. The US did not decide the outcome of the 2020 elections, but admittedly played a leading role in the outcome of the 2015 elections that resulted in the PPP being removed from office and replaced by APNU.
In 2020, it was only after APNU realised that it lost the election that a plan was effected to barefacedly rig the outcome. The former Jamaican PM Bruce Golding said it was the most transparent effort he had ever witnessed to rig an election.

It is beyond comprehension why Senator Roxanne did not fact-find her information on the election; she would have found out that CARICOM nations, rather than the US, played a significant role in helping to certify the outcome for the elections commission (GECOM).  There was a recount that was conducted in the presence of a CARICOM auditing observer group. Then President Granger invited the CARICOM group to supervise and certify the recount, saying it was the best interlocutor to resolve an impasse. The recount was done under public camera. The CARICOM recount concluded that the PPP won the election. The APNU-led coalition rejected the outcome. GECOM accepted the recount numbers as credible; APNU started a campaign to vilify CARICOM leaders. The global community acknowledged the outcome of the elections as declared by GECOM, with the PPP as the winner. Not one country or observer agreed with APNU that it won, or that there was electoral fraud in declaring the outcome.

Senator Roxanne failed to mention that APNU refused to honour the outcome of a No-Confidence Motion that it lost on December 21, 2018 that required elections by March 2019; the election was not held until a year later, and only after the regime caved in to international pressure. APNU also defied the court that ruled that elections be held within the three-month timeframe. In addition, there was an aversion to the rule of law and other tenets of the Constitution such as in the appointment of a Chair of GECOM. The Senator made no mention of efforts by some demanding the swearing in of a president when the outcome was not declared, and when challenges were before the court.

Instead of attacking the US, Senator Roxanne should have instructed APNU to adhere to constitutional principles and democratic norms.  Guyanese praised the US and the international community for their role in securing the democratic outcome of the vote. The Guyanese people want America to play a greater role in protecting the country’s democracy. To redeem herself, Senator Roxanne should read the judgments of the Chief Justice, the CCJ, as well as the recount reports from CARICOM, and the remarks of all western diplomats. Guyanese, observers, media people, and Caribbean nationals are most disappointed in the Senator for her ill-informed remarks. She should correct her mis-statements about the election on the Senate floor, as well as apologise for her misrepresentation of the facts!

Yours truly,

Dr. Vishnu Bisram (Political Scientist/Pollster)