–former AFC member Gaskin highlights; says will not be actively involved in a campaign that is heading nowhere
–convinced that collective opposition already lost the 2025 elections to the PPP/C way in advance

GUYANESE are still scarred from the blatant attempts of the People’s National Congress-Reform (PNC-R)/A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) + Alliance For Change (AFC) to undermine the will of the people and influence the outcome of the 2020 General and Regional Elections.
Those actions, witnessed by people the world over, had further diminished the integrity of those parties which now occupy the seat of opposition. However, despite the reality they face and the fact that another election is around the corner, there has been no indication by the collective opposition that it is prepared to recognise and respect the will of the people regardless of the outcome.

“[All members of the opposition] need to demonstrate to the public that they are prepared to recognise the will of the people at the next election…I am hoping that the current opposition is prepared to recognise it [the results of the elections] as the legitimate will of the people,” son-in-law of former President David Granger and former AFC executive member Dominic Gaskin said during an appearance on a recent edition of the Freddie Kissoon Show.

The people, in 2020, went to the polls and peacefully gave a mandate to the PPP/C to govern. But, after casting their votes, Guyanese had to endure a five-month wait for the results of the General and Regional Elections as they witnessed alleged unlawful acts and a slew of legal challenges.
During this time, the patience of the electorate was tested, as electors observed what was described as attempts by the then APNU+AFC administration to rip the democratic fabric of the nation, with “delay tactics” which were openly criticised by a wide section of society.

It was only after the legal challenges and international intervention that a national recount of all votes cast was convened and the figures showed that the PPP/C received 233,336 votes, while the APNU+AFC Coalition got 217,920 votes.
Confident that the opposition parties’ history already cemented a win for the incumbent PPP/C at the next election, Gaskin said: “I am not saying if there are irregularities they [opposition] can’t object, but I am saying don’t lose elections and take to the streets and try to discredit elections.

“People cast their vote [sic] and they cast it [sic] with the expectation that the totality of those votes will be recognised in determining who forms the next government, [so you cannot] participate in that process and discredit it because you didn’t win.”
The former AFC member believes that the odds are stacked against the opposition parties, and it is highly unlikely that it could recover any time soon from what happened in 2020.

Therefore, when asked whether he would rejoin the AFC ahead of the 2025 elections, Gaskin said: “I can’t support a party or be actively involved in a campaign that is not heading anywhere.”
In fact, he went as far as to say: “They [the opposition] [have] lost the 2025 elections in advance.”

Aside from the opposition’s shortcomings, Gaskin believes that the PPP/C is likely to win the 2025 General and Regional Elections since it is doing a good job in spending the “oil money” in ways that people respond to.
Over 100 governments from around the world had condemned the APNU+AFC’s attempts to derail the electoral process in 2020, and the presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the March 2, 2020, General and Regional Elections further exposed the blatant actions of the coalition.

Chairman of the CoI Stanley John and commissioners — former Chancellor, Carl Singh and Senior Counsel Godfrey Smith arrived at their conclusions based on evidence from the many witnesses who testified along with the reports of international observers.

“…our inquiry reveals that there were, in fact, shockingly brazen attempts by Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield; Deputy Chief Election Officer (DCEO) Roxanne Myers and Returning Officer (RO) Clairmont Mingo to derail and corrupt the statutorily prescribed procedure for the counting,

ascertaining and tabulation of votes of the March 2 election, as well as the true declaration of the results of that election, and that they did so – to put it in unvarnished language of the ordinary man – for the purpose of stealing the election,” the commissioners said in their report.

The report found, among other things, that Lowenfield blatantly made decisions and employed procedures in direct contradiction to the law and the will of the people. The findings revealed too that GECOM staffers ignored specific instructions from the court, used materials that were illegal and or

manipulated, and sided with APNU+AFC agents to berate observers whenever objections were raised.