—for still not accepting 2020 defeat, Jagdeo says
–confident PPP/C will win 2025 election due to hard work, inclusive nature

NEARLY five years later, the political opposition refuses to concede, despite widespread validation of the final results of the 2020 election, which was recognised by both domestic and international observers.

Addressing the opposition’s reluctance to accept defeat, People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo has said that their actions continually prove that they are dishonest and “mentally dysfunctional”.

At a recent press conference, the General Secretary referenced People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Leader, Aubrey Norton’s defence of the report by former Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield, in which he had dumped over 115,000 votes in the 2020 General and Regional Elections without valid reasons.

Jagdeo said: “So, clearly Norton until now, agrees not just with the attempt to rig, but he also disagrees with the Caribbean Court of Justice ruling. And this is something that tells you all is the same issue as Nigel Hughes.

“So, when the low-life case was hard or my witness appeared, he is still arguing in that case the 34 is the majority of 65 when the CCJ had already ruled on that matter in a very definitive way. So clearly, we have a group of either dishonest or mentally dysfunctional people in this country who can’t see that they’re the only ones who actually believe that this happened.”

In wake of their resounding electoral defeat in 2020, Jagdeo said both leaders of the Alliance For Change (AFC) and PNCR are focused on peddling unfounded conspiracy theories and casting doubt on election results instead of rebuilding their political strategy.

“I think for politicians, if you’re so far from the truth and you believe in all of these weird conspiracy theories, nobody takes you seriously. It’s a bit of advice to Norton and Nigel Hughes because you’re trying to tell the whole country and the world that they were wrong… And it’s better to acknowledge and move on,” he said.

Contrast this sort of behaviour with the PPP when it lost the 2015 General and Regional Elections, Jagdeo said that the party had focused on rebuilding itself.

Admitting one is out of office and work must be done based on the political party’s vision are rudimentary, Jagdeo said.

He added: “If you can’t acknowledge something as basic as this, then there’s no rebuilding. There’s absolutely no rebuilding. And they’re stuck in that lie and people see through the lie. Because if someone would lie about something that is so known, so visible, so documented, how can you believe them to fulfill anything else they say? Any promise that they make to you?”

Further, he spoke on how the PPP has continued to mold itself into a national party that advances the interests of all Guyanese.

The General Secretary said: “We will win the elections because of our work and because we are approaching Guyana as a national party, the People’s Progressive Party. Because we are treating all of our people equally regardless of their race, their religion, or gender.”

It is important to understand that the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the events of the 2020 General and Regional Elections found that there was collusion and collaboration between senior GECOM officials to divert votes to the APNU +AFC instead of safeguarding and preserving the integrity of the electoral system.

Chairman Stanley John and commissioners — former Chancellor, Carl Singh and Senior Counsel Godfrey Smith made these findings based on evidence from the many witnesses who testified along with the reports of the 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 2nd 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 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.

After careful scrutiny, the COI commissioners concluded that there was a conscious and deliberate – even brazen –effort to violate the provisions of section 84(1) of the Representation of the People Act (RoPA)
In so doing, certain “senior GECOM officials” abandoned all need for neutrality and impartiality, and demonstrated a bias for the APNU+AFC and, in the course of events over those days, showed an “open connection” with that party, and by their efforts sought a desired result for the coalition.

As such, the commissioners said that after consideration and analysis of the evidence, Lowenfield, Mingo and Myers “were principally responsible for clear and deliberate attempts to frustrate, obstruct and subvert the ascertainment of votes in electoral district No. 4.”

Against this backdrop, the COI found that the trio undoubtedly made a premature and unlawful declaration of falsified results which showed the APNU+AFC was the winner of electoral district No. 4.

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 had received 233,336 votes, while the APNU+AFC coalition got 217,920 votes.