–Ramjattan says

AS it continues to whitewash its role in the attempts to rig the 2020 elections, the Alliance for Change (AFC) on Friday walked back on its claim that Russians attempted to tamper with the electoral process.

In fact, AFC executive and former Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan said that four Russians were deported for “talking to [Bharrat] Jagdeo”.

“It is very well known, so don’t tell me that I didn’t deport four Russians. They were caught talking to Jagdeo,” he said.

The former Public Security Minister went on to admit that he did not even know what the men were speaking about, but proceeded to deport them.

“I could not have gotten what they were talking about, and so I decided, ‘Look, send them people away.’ And they were sent away,” he said at the AFC’s press conference.

But, at a May 5, 2020 press conference, Ramjattan had said that it was Winston Brassington who the Russians were “photographed” talking to.

He also claimed that cyber equipment were seized, but these have never been found.

A Commission of Inquiry into the 2020 general and regional elections confirmed that attempts were made by APNU+AFC members and GECOM officials to rig the elections in favour of the coalition, although the PPP/C had won by more than 15,000 votes.

As those attempts failed, Ramjattan and another AFC executive, Cathy Hughes sought to discredit the polls by claiming that Russians attempted to ‘hack’ the election and give the PPP/C a victory.

On March 5, 2020, allegations of Russian interference in Guyana’s General and Regional Elections surfaced, with Ramjattan reporting that cyber equipment has been seized and three persons with Russian background, deported.

A fourth Russian operative, he said, was not located. The cyber equipment included computers and flash drives.

“We had three persons who were speaking to leading members of the PPP at the Marriott Hotel – one out of Libya [with Russian background), one out of Russian, one of America with a Russian background that came into this country and we had to deport them on Elections Day after our intelligence realised that there was some conspiracy to tap into GECOM’s computer system. They were immediately deported,” Ramjattan had said.

Hughes, who was with Ramjattan at a news briefing when the talk of Russians surfaced, said: “We have very clear security channels. The requisite organisations were contacted, fortunately they examined the situation and the information that they received, they deemed it credible and they found three of the four persons, and given that this was occurring on the early morning of the most important day of our history, the decision was taken that they had no grounds for these persons to be here and they were deported.”
The claim became a source of embarrassment for the AFC, after Guyanese began questioning how a paper-based electoral system could be hacked.