DOMINIC Gaskin has his place in Guyanese electoral history. He publicly spoke out against the actions of the APNU+AFC government, of which he was an active member. He did not agree with the relentless efforts to delay the declaration of the results of the 2020 General and Regional Elections. Most Guyanese admired this quality, a man with an independent mind, a man who spoke his mind.

I was part of the same party (The AFC) as Gaskin; he operated in an inner information circle which I was not privy to on many occasions. I guess that Gaskin saw or heard something that confirmed for him that the coalition had lost the elections based on pure numbers as reflected in the original Statements of Polls.

As such, he had a vantage point from which to take an independent position and say exactly what he felt. As it turned out, Gaskin couldn’t have been more right.

For my part, I did not agree with Gaskin, chiefly because I am a quintessential party man. I go with the views of the collective majority. I was operating with fed information; I was in an information silo. My responsibilities during the election campaign were related to logistic support.

Some other group planned public meetings and rallies. I was responsible for helping to put things in place by channelling people and resources to ensure the best possible event. I was also responsible for handling the personal schedule of the Prime Ministerial Candidate — things like organising field research and giving pointers for his campaign speeches. I was, therefore, exposed to information in so far as it related to my specific functions.

During the immediate post elections period, the first few days, there was a complete information blackout at my level. Information that eventually reached me suggested that the PPP was dangerous liars and artful manipulators and not a word was to be trusted.

There was a swarm of information sources and it was difficult to work out exactly while still performing post elections duties. So, I got to the position where I didn’t care what the true results were. I was prepared to do whatever my party, in its collective wisdom, chose to do. I dug in and supported those who were chosen to lead. I was assigned to perform supervisory duties during the recount at the conference centre.

While there, I was directly exposed to viewing the actual recount process and the results there from. All this time, I was questioning the approach of the APNU+AFC, then I came to realise that the AFC had no party position, there was no collective leadership wisdom to dig in and follow.

For example, Khemraj Ramjattan was kept completely out of the information loop, and conflicting information was reaching every AFC leader only on a need-to-know basis. Why the leadership of the AFC went along with the plot under those conditions, I don’t fully understand, though I have a theory.

One or two leaders in the AFC were hoping the results would be so poisoned by the so-called Observation Reports that it couldn’t be used to validate either party governing based on them.

As such, the prospect of a temporary CARICOM brokered settlement was possible, requiring both parties to work out a governance agreement with a view of going to new elections with a few new rules.

This was an intriguing possibility to me. As it turned out, the futile and endless court cases meant that that possibility was becoming more and more remote by the hour.

This meant that my entire basis for digging in and going with my party fell apart. I was instead digging in on an APNU agenda. That didn’t sit well with me, so I withdrew from the recount process and that unrelenting support I was willing to give to the team.

While I didn’t choose the path of Gaskin, I surely eventually took on a sympathetic view of his posture. Despite that, I felt that the actions I’d already taken, in the name of party, condemned me to persevere with actions that can save the party for the future.

I was willing to contribute to the rebuilding process but subsequent events and decisions taken by those who were asked to lead the party didn’t find favour with me. It was time to leave. Gaskin will go down as a respected public figure for the stance he took.

Nevertheless, there were several positions Gaskin and his ministerial colleagues took during the life of the APNU+AFC government that were detrimental to the longevity of the coalition; I will touch on these sometime in the future.