THE PNC, now jumbled into APNU+AFC Coalition, has, for the most of post-Independent Guyana (50 years) been involved in electoral rigging from 1968 to 1985 and in 2020. In the first phase, electoral rigging was so blatant that documentation was easy, while, in the second phase, the evidence was transparent via social media. Although both phases of rigging occurred some three decades apart, they share some foundational differences and similarities. One sample of each will suffice. The difference is that, in the first phase, the PNC was successful in repeated rigging while in the second phase, the rigging was challenged and “defeated”. The similarity is that both phases of the rigging have placed an indelible mark on the minds of Guyanese that one core value of the PNC is electoral rigging, hands down.

Intuitively and implicitly, the continuation of the rigging of elections brings into question whether the 2015 general elections, which the coalition “won” by a few thousand votes, was also rigged. The PPP/C challenged the 2015 general election results to have a recount but, as we know, the petition has since hit a dead end. Nonetheless, if we accept, with substantive evidence based on the 2020 general election shenanigans, that the 2015 general election was tampered with to disfavour the PPP/C, which was likely, then the point should be made that the PNC has never won a free and fair election in Guyana. Still, and given how things have been unfolding in the opposition, one can conclude that this declaration might be the reality going forward for the PNC, or the PNC might dissolve. These are strong and sobering statements that deserve a place in the annals of Guyanese history, at least for posterity reasons.

To observers, in and out of Guyana, the rigging of general elections by a particular political party, joined now by other parties, may appear peculiar and eccentric. In a world where most countries and communities are moving towards acknowledging and accepting the basic rights of individuals, brought about by the facets and forces of globalisation and social media, the APNU+AFC Coalition is moving in the opposite direction. The boomerang leaders within the coalition would like us to believe that they are in the trenches with us, when, in reality, they believe and practise the act of political auto-eroticism. They are bound to their zones of self-gratification and emboldened by the lust for power through electoral rigging.  Put simply, the lust for power through electoral rigging, as opposed to the will of the people, is deeper than previously thought because a majority of Guyanese were convinced that rigging was a PNC past, if not, an aberration. I have always asked if the APNU+AFC Coalition has a psychologist in its cockpit, and if there is a concealed one, that individual has bizarrely been “de-psychologised” into joining the rigging cabal.

What the PNC has created in Guyana is a votive paradox, and that is, the role of politics and rigging duties have been merged making them practically indistinguishable. When the people caught on to this manifest and market bullying, the coalition shifted the narrative. They have been claiming they are the real victims of electoral fraud, validating a paradox rolled out into a sick tragedy. We need the local Shakespearean here folks for comedy sakes, one way of dealing with distress. What is not an afterthought, however, is that the empty preachment of the coalition that the March 2020 general election was taken away from them is the game plan going into the August 2025 general elections. This commitment cum capacity of the opposition has foregrounded the call to discuss the following.

First off, a lot will depend on the outcome of the charges against the trio, Keith Lowenfield, Roxanne Meyers, and Clairmont Mingo about their alleged attempts to rig March 2, 2020, General and Regional Elections. The embattled trio has been dismissed from their contracted positions in GECOM. Moreover, if the trio is found guilty by the courts –they might appeal – then it will be the first time in post-Independent Guyana that individuals were charged with electoral rigging, a monumental departure from the past. If anything at all, a message would be sent that rigging of elections has unflattering consequences.

The second point is the challenge to have contracted workers in GECOM who can earn the public’s confidence that they would be guided by ethics and dignity rather than political views. This challenge is compounded by the thought that repairing the damage done to trust in GECOM will take years to come. The mere fact that Opposition’s Commissioners refused to participate in the termination of the trio reveals insidious as well as continuous polarised dynamics in GECOM. Anyone who could come with ways to deal with these “creatures” in GECOM certainly deserves an award of awards, dubbed as GECOM Award of Honesty and Dignity (GAHD). While we wait, thoughts of rigging elections, should not be remotely entertained. We all should be involved to heal this national sore and be influenced by what Mahatma Gandhi once said: “Anyone who says they are not interested in politics is like a drowning man who insists he is not interested in water”. (lomarsh.roopnarine@jsums.edu).