The PPP appears to be getting cold feet as a total recount looms

Apr 12, 2020 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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From all appearances, the opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) which together with its prejudiced international observer friends and other politically jaundiced allied groups, had told the world that the party had easily won the general and regional elections, now appears to be getting cold feet as GECOM is preparing to organise a total recount and audit of the March 2, general and regional polls.
From confidently agreeing to a recheck of ballots cast in all of the 10 electoral districts, we are now seeing that the party is using surrogate organisations like the Private Sector Commission (PSC) to demand a limited recount and/or audit only of Region Four.
It clearly does not want the Elections Commission to recheck all the ballots, as it fears that the nation and the world would eventually see the extent of the level of rigging that occurred during the elections. And not from the source where fingers are currently pointing.
Eggs would be on the face of all those who told the world that the APNU-AFC Coalition were a bunch of cheats, determined to build what some holier than thou folks had said was a budding dictatorship in Guyana. The real cheats, the PPP, would be exposed by a recount and/or audit.
In trying to give the public impression that it had absolutely no problem with a total recount or audit, the party had not made a single complaint or objection when GECOM Chairperson, retired Justice Claudette Singh, had told the High Court in an affidavit that she is prepared to organize a recheck of all 10 regions. Now it is singing a different tune. But in just a matter of days, the PPP now wants to limit the count to Region Four alone. Should the numbers come up in its favour if Region Four is counted first or alone, it would quickly abandon the process and declare a global victory, but this will not happen, as all indications are that the nation is in for a complete audit of what transpired on Monday March 2, 2020.
Late last week, the Coalition had cause to respond to the PSC for their political duplicity and downright dishonesty regarding an audit of March 2.
“The Coalition APNU+AFC views with great consternation the utterances by the Private Sector Commission (PSC) with regard to the national recount of ballots in the recent National and Regional Elections of March 2020. In the first instance, the Coalition notes that this statement has arrived after the GECOM had clearly communicated to the Guyanese public, their intention to recount all of the ballots from all of the ten Electoral Districts in a sequential manner, starting from District One.
We draw to the attention of all Guyanese, PSC’s insistence that only a recount of District Four be undertaken and their condemnation of a total recount as an “entire waste of time”.
The Coalition wishes to point out the absolute hypocrisy of this position, given that Guyanese from District 1 – Barima/Waini to District 10 – Upper Demerara/ Berbice would have exercised their franchise and should too be granted the assurance that their votes are accounted for. After all, any government elected in the Co-operative Republic of Guyana would be a government of ALL the people.
This simplistic posture of the PSC, not only abrogates the transparency they claim to seek, but has removed the veil of neutrality in which it ought to be cloaked, and incontrovertibly identifies that entity as a mere stooge of the Opposition PPP/C.
It is now obvious to all that the political bias of the PSC does not even allow them to acknowledge that there were discrepancies in other Districts, which led to APNU+AFC asking for a recount in Districts 3 and 6, among others, which was refused by Returning Officers.
The PSC has demonstrated in no small measure, their contempt for and underestimation of the intelligence of the Guyanese people, who understand that a total recount is the only true measure of complete transparency.
It is in this spirit that H.E. David Granger initiated the efforts for a total recount of the votes and has maintained the position that GECOM must be allowed to operate without interference, intimidation, and in accordance with the laws of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.
The Coalition awaits GECOM’s direction on the conduct of the recount which we hope will include an audit of the contents of each ballot box, and which we are certain will take into consideration the current prevailing circumstances in which the country is engulfed, including the COVID-19 pandemic.
The APNU+AFC Coalition continues to be confident of its victory at the polls and like the rest of the nation, looks forward to a declaration in that regard.
Former Member of Parliament Aubrey Norton also felt compelled, recently, to weigh in on the PPP, the PSC and its friends. We concur with his opinion.
“It is pertinent to note here”, he wrote, “that many of the people who rallied behind the PPP in recent times are those who enjoyed the fruits from the criminal cabal that ruled Guyana and those who enjoyed the crumbs that fell from the table of the criminal cabal that constituted the PPP government. Note the emphasis on the elite since the ordinary supporters of the PPP were not the main beneficiaries of PPP rule, it was the criminal underworld, PPP elites, friends and family who benefitted.
The innocent, hardworking and decent people…suffered at the hands of Jagdeo’s PPP. The PPP has no interest in the people of Guyana, democracy and free and fair elections. It is all about the money that the PPP elite, and their friends, family and allies in crime hope to make now that Guyana is an oil-producing nation.
It is also interesting that the PPP did not make the call to abort the national recount itself. It used one of its puppets to make the call.”

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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