Sanctions are likely to be applied against elections officials and the government

Mar 07, 2020 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The APNU+AFC has managed to do something which has not been done for 28 years. They have managed to unite the country’s opposition parties.
Six opposition parties – People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP), The New Movement (TNM), the United Republican Party (URP), A New and United Guyana (ANUG) and Change Guyana (CG) – have joined forces to condemn the declaration of the Region Four’s elections results.
It is very much like the situation in 1985 when the opposition parties linked up to form the Patriotic Coalition for Democracy (PCD) to fight for democracy and free and fair elections following the rigging of the 1985 elections. The PCD united the then opposition parties for close to seven years.
The six parties did not amalgamate prior to the elections. But they have now found a reason to come together in order to prevent the theft of the elections by the APNU+AFC.
They have made it clear, according to a report in INEWS Guyana, that international sanctions would be instituted should David Granger be sworn in as President. The six parties have called for restrictions of movement and the freezing of overseas assets and oil revenues. They want these to be kept in escrow until the problems with the votes tabulation is resolved.
One year ago, the United States imposed personal sanctions against electoral officials of the Democratic Republic of Congo. These officials were accused of obstructing and delaying the holding of credible elections. The United States slapped sanctions against the men.
The United States government did the same thing two weeks ago against Iranian officials. These officials were complicit in blocking the participation of thousands of candidates for elections.
The European Union had imposed sanctions last October on 85 individuals in Zimbabwe. This includes government officials for transgressions which include electoral offences. Zimbabwean officials have been subject to international sanctions for more than 15 years and it is beginning to hurt many of them and their families.
Canada is part of a number of countries, which have imposed economic sanctions against Venezuela and its government officials for human rights violations and for alleged problems with elections. Canada has gone as far as spearheading a regional grouping, which included Guyana and is called the Lima Group, in order to isolate Venezuela within the Region and to bring pressure to bear on Maduro.
The United Kingdom has also imposed financial sanctions on individuals. It has done so over the illegitimate elections in Donbass in Ukraine. These sanctions have been in place for more than five years.
The sanctions often involve the freezing of assets, travel restrictions in the first instance. These personal sanctions aimed at top officials are usually extended to apply further pressure on recalcitrant regimes to change for illegal regimes to step aside.
No one therefore is in any doubt that the Americans, British, Canadians and the European Union have fallback positions should there be any attempt to deem lawful the unverified Guyana elections results. The ABC countries along with the European Union, the Commonwealth, the Caribbean Community, the Carter Centre and the Organization of American States are in no doubt as to who won the 2020 general elections in Guyana.
They have come out and said so because they are pressing for the lawful procedures to be followed. But you can bet that they know who won the elections.
If they discover that electoral officials were complicit in elections fraud, they will have no other alternative but to impose sanctions on those persons. They will be obligated to do the same if they assess that there is an illegitimate government.
It is difficult to see how, if David Granger is returned to office, as a result of discredited results, how the ABC countries and the European countries can refuse to impose financial sanctions on his government and on election officials. With the six opposition parties now forming a front to defend democracy, it is hard to see how the West can refuse to apply sanctions.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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