-Gaskin says, notes both parties failed to regain trust of electorate five years on

YEARS after the controversial 2020 General and Regional Elections were held, former Minister of Business under the then APNU+AFC administration, Dominic Gaskin, has said that both parties continue to deliberately ignore the political crisis that followed and have failed to take meaningful steps to regain the trust of the electorate.

Gaskin made this known while speaking on the Starting Point podcast, during which he offered his assessment of the then-coalition’s approach to the elections impasse.

Asked whether the APNU and the AFC had heeded his earlier calls to “honour the will of the people” and work to regain the support of swing voters, Gaskin responded, “Simple, no. I’ve seen nothing over the last five years from either APNU or the AFC that says to me, ‘Look, we’ve examined the situation, we’ve done some internal agonising and investigations, and here’s our take on it.’”

He added, “Their comfort zone seems to be just ignoring it and hoping it will go away.”

Against this backdrop, the former minister, while noting that he is no longer affiliated with any political party, criticised the opposition’s posture following the swearing in of President Dr Irfaan Ali in August 2020. ,

“Ignoring what took place between the elections, March 3rd and August, when the new government was sworn in …that five-month period, pretending it didn’t happen and worse yet, even referring to the current government as [illegitimate]. It doesn’t help the opposition to do that,” he stated.

Further to this, he emphasised that this position did not regain the trust of the people.

As the country enters another election cycle, he disclosed that while last-minute campaign promises may gain the two parties some votes, most people are likely to vote on the basis of performance.

“Yes, you can make last-minute campaign promises. You’ll get a little bit of traction. But by and large, people will vote for you based on your performance over the last five years and not be too swayed by… the sweeteners that you hand out in the last few weeks of your campaign,” he said.

During the 2020 elections impasse, Gaskin called out the coalition, noting that it had been deliberately fooling supporters with exaggerated claims of electoral fraud and urged the party to be honest and accept the defeat.

“The claims of fraud were grossly exaggerated and unfortunately designed to fool party supporters, who had placed their faith in the coalition, into believing that there was actual evidence of serious elections rigging by the PPP/C,” Gaskin had written at the time.