Former Presidential Advisor calls for targeted sanctions on ‘those who want to steal the election’

Apr 19, 2020 News

Former Advisor to the President on Petroleum, Dr. Jan Mangal, says that it is time for severe, targeted sanctions against officials at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and in Government who are complicit in an attempt to steal Guyana’s 2020 elections.

Former Presidential Advisor, Dr. Jan Mangal

“US sanctions on government officials and their key family/business associates is needed ASAP,” Dr. Mangal said.
He added, “How else to put immediate and strong pressure on these officials who are actively trying to steal an election and ruin Guyana?”
Asked what the nature of those sanctions would be, Dr. Mangal responded with the following.
“This is for Guyanese to decide. We need a wide forum of Guyanese independents, [Non Governmental Organisations] NGOs, Civil Society, and respected commentators to get together to produce a document which calls for sanctions.”
He said that that collective would have to list the positions of officials who are to be sanctioned, suggesting that it start “all the way [at] the top” of Government and GECOM.
“It should call for sanctions which target travel, assets, business interests, etc.”
Dr. Mangal stressed the importance of severity. Otherwise, they would be ignored, he posited.
“Once this forum produces a document, then we can more effectively reach out to the international press to get visibility. The diaspora can also use this document to lobby their representatives in the US, Canada and UK.”
Representatives of those major countries have already expressed concern about the integrity of Guyana’s elections. The US and the UK have said that there would be serious consequences if a government is installed on the basis of any flawed tabulation.

President and APNU+AFC Presidential Candidate, David Granger

Kaieteur News had first contacted Dr. Mangal on Thursday before GECOM Chair, Justice Claudette Singh was slated to communicate certain decisions to the Commissioners on the national recount. Though it would have appeared at the time that GECOM would make swift progress from thereon, Dr. Mangal disagreed.
“GECOM is not making progress,” he said, “It is only buying time for those who want to steal the election. The government will drag this out as long as possible, and will be looking to steal the election at every opportunity.”
An email from the Chair was found to be underwhelming, as seven parties responded, calling for more to be done.
Dr. Mangal said he is convinced that GECOM is a tool of the government, who he is sure “is dishonest and has bad intentions.”
“We have ample evidence for this,” Dr. Mangal stated.
Allegations that there may be attempts to rig the elections began mid-March shortly after a contentious pair of declarations of the Region Four results by that district’s returning officer, Clairmont Mingo, was ruled as unlawful by Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire. The Chief Justice had sent Mingo back to the table, after she found that he did not stick to the law on the procedure necessary for the count.
It did not help the situation when the second general and regional declarations for Region Four, made on March 13, also followed a tabulation marred by a lack of transparency and accusations of electoral fraud. At least five of the contesting political parties had reported that Mingo produced inflated statements of poll, with numbers that were clearly clumsily doctored.

GECOM Chair, Claudette Singh

Mingo’s first pair of declarations was at odds with his second pair. But the governing coalition did not appear to care for that and the other issues raised, which left many lingering questions about the credibility of the tabulations. Joseph Harmon, an APNU+AFC front bencher, had revealed that the party hoped its presidential candidate, David Granger, would be sworn in quickly.
That did not happen, as statements began to mount from the international community, calling for a fair and credible conclusion to the electoral process.
A recount was contemplated by President David Granger and Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, but was frustrated by a slothful GECOM, then a Court challenge from an APNU+AFC candidate, Ulita Moore.
The President had said he was disappointed about the frustration of the recount, casting Moore as a private citizen and not an agent of the party. But a section of the public remained doubtful that Moore’s esteemed legal team was not supplied and/or funded by the party.
Now, almost three weeks have passed since the Full Court struck down those injunctions, paving way for the recount. GECOM Commissioners have been arguing back and forth about this and that. And the process has dragged out to Day 47 of the Election – yesterday – with no official elections results.
“Now it is over a month,” Dr. Mangal said, “If the government had any intent to honour the rights of the people of Guyana, they would have solved this situation in the first week.”
The former Presidential advisor said that Guyanese should find this completely unacceptable, as the international community has.
“But Guyanese tolerated the former Burnham dictatorial regime for decades. So Guyanese may be happy to spend the next couple decades under a dictatorship which forfeits all of the oil wealth whilst oppressing the people who speak out,” Dr. Mangal stated.
“Guyana could quickly become a poster child for a failed oil state; worse than Equatorial Guinea or Nigeria at their worst,” Dr. Mangal said.
As an anti-corruption advocate, Dr. Mangal has spoken out against corruption in both the PPP and APNU+AFC. He had said, in terms of managing the petroleum sector and the wealth that would come from it, that the PPP would be worse for the country altogether. But he has vehemently spoken out against the frustration of Guyana’s electoral process and attempts to hand a non-credible victory to the APNU+AFC.