Let us celebrate a successful anniversary!

Dear editor,
GUYANESE are indeed celebrating the first one-year of Dr. Irfaan Ali as the President of Guyana. However, we must never forget the numerous attempts to rig and derail the results of the National and Regional Elections in 2020.

Genuine efforts are in place for constitutional and electoral reforms must be completed for us to have complete reformation of Guyana’s electoral machinery. The Guyana Elections Commission must be transformed into an organisation in which Guyanese have confidence and trust and must hold free and fair elections. The commission must get rid of the infamous ‘trio’ immediately. The motion to dismiss the Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield, along with Deputy Chief Elections Officer Roxanne Myers and Region Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo was amended to add termination of contracts as a means of removing the unwanted officers from their posts at GECOM. It is most heartening to know that the amendments were approved by the Chairperson Justice Claudette Singh. The blatant disregard and disrespect to the chairperson and open defiance of court orders in his desperate pursuit to fraudulently declare the APNU+AFC coalition winners of the March 2nd 2020 National and Regional Elections are more than enough sins to remove Lowenfield.

The events that unfolded after a peaceful and successful 2nd March, National and Regional elections were serious and were punctuated with brazen and blatant attempts to steal a government.
As the counting and verification processes were successfully carried out in nine of the 10 administrative districts, the PNC abandoned the legal process of using the Statements of Poll and then decided to call false numbers from a manufactured ‘broadsheet’ in an effort to rig the results in Region Four. That disgraceful and most glaring attempt to ‘thief’ votes in favour of the PNC was not acceptable, as the political parties and the international observers protested vehemently against the ‘riggers.’

Guyanese had to endure all the tension and frustration, along with threats and bullying as a 33-day recount took place only to verify that the People’s Progressive Party’s SoPs were true and correct. As a consequence, the PPP/C was declared clear winner of the National and Regional Elections. This nation had to wait for five long months as the PNC/ APNU/AFC had their knees on our people’s necks in their efforts to rig and later to derail the elections.

As the verification process took place and the thievery was in action at the GECOM Command Centre in the Ashmin building, the ‘riggers’ were caught red-handed and they stopped the verification process. They threatened the international and local observers that there was a ‘bomb’ in the building; the ‘pompous’ Roxanne Myers threatened us and demanded that we leave the building with a false alarm. As a consequence, Assistant Police Commissioner Edgar Thomas was removed from his position of Officer-in-charge of the Command Centre and Commissioner Sase Gunraj was also humiliated as he was threatened to be removed from the building. It was most embarrassing to see the prominent ambassadors, observers and civil society persons along with other parties’ representatives being threatened and harassed by the police and political thugs. Commissioner Robeson Benn was brutally manhandled as he suffered a fractured arm and it had to be in cast for several weeks.

Court action after court action was the order of the day as all attempts were put in place to derail the elections after the PNC and GECOM conspirators failed in their attempts to do the rigging.
As Guyanese celebrate the first anniversary, we must recognise the fact that it was the dynamic leadership of the PPP/C, the unity of our people and the powerful support of our leaders in CARICOM and the eminent ambassadors that made it possible. Our democracy must prevail.

Yours sincerely,
Neil Kumar

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