Another attempt to rig must not be allowed to pass

May 09, 2020 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

A convincing case has been made out to the effect that what we experienced on March 4, 2020 was tantamount to a virtual coup by a group of ex-military men now in civilian clothes.
The virtual coup was staged following the failure by PNC operatives embedded at GECOM to thwart the will of the electorate.
The virtual coup has since been buttressed by the invocation of the Public Health Ordinance which gave sweeping emergency powers to a caretaker administration.
Recently extended ‘till June 4, these extraordinary powers are not dissimilar from the measures inherent in a declaration of a State of Emergency under the Summary Jurisdiction Offences (Amendment) Act Ch.8:02 which has not been declared per sey, but elements of which are now effectively in place and administered by an unpopular elite clinging with their fingernails to state and government.
Instead of professionalizing, the institutional bodies to confront COVID 19, the bureaucratic elite has weaponized and politicized its national response.
For the sake of political expediency, the elite have established linkage between its COVID-19 response and the on-going election saga. It continues to resort to political pranks such as its call for 33,000 masks to be worn by persons engaged in the recount of the votes.
Call them shenanigans or subterfuges, the point is the APNU+AFC’s actions have been persistently unconstitutional and contrary to the Representation of the People Act or both.
In effect, all along, they have been acting illegally.
Such illegal acts are not anathema to the elite, the record shows they were perpetrated soon after assuming office, and later, as a caretaker administration, so described, following passage of the NCM on December 21, 2019.
Cumulatively, these authoritarian acts closely resemble those adopted by civilian authoritarian regimes in Albania, Equatorial Guinea, Myanmar, Chad and Tajikistan just to mention a few where, according to the UN Human Rights Commission, the regimes in those countries are known to have horrendous human rights track records.
That aside, it is apposite to note that, the virtual coup we are witnessing is similar in many respects to an actual coup that took place in Guyana during colonial times.
THE FIRST COUP:
I refer to October 9, 1953, when a mere 4 ½ months after the PPP had won the elections, the Constitution was suspended, Emergency Orders introduced and an interim government established. Restriction Orders were served on several PPP leaders including Cheddi Jagan, Sydney King (now Eusi Kwayana), Martin Carter, Adjodha Singh, Eric Huntley, Janet Jagan, Ramsarran, Ram Karan and Rory Westmaas.
In keeping with the spirit of resistance at the time, several PPP leaders broke their Restriction Orders and, as a consequence, were jailed.
Colin A. Palmer in chapter one of his book; ‘Cheddi Jagan and the Politics of Power British Guiana’s struggle for Independence’ described the arrival of British troops in the colony as ‘The Imperial Coup d’Etat’ to remove the PPP from office.
THE SECOND COUP:
Following the coup in 1953, three successive States of Emergency were declared in British Guiana between 1962 and 1964. These States of Emergency, laid the basis for a change in the electoral system from First past the Post to Proportional Representation.
By December 14, 1964 an Order in Council had been issued authorizing the Governor to appoint a new Premier
In effect, it was a constitutionally engineered coup that saw the removal of the PPP from office.
THE THIRD COUP:
At the close of poll following the July 16, 1973, general elections, the military intervened, seized the ballot boxes and took them to Camp Ayangana where they were kept for fifteen hours during which time, votes were switched in favour of the PNC. When the declaration of the result was made, it showed that the PNC gave themselves 71 per cent of the total votes cast with a two thirds majority in parliament.
It was an army assisted coup.
THE FOURTH COUP:
A political coup d’Etat took place following a referendum for a new constitution held on July 10, 1978. According to the New Nation of July 16, 1978; of 431,120 voters on a list of 602,225 electors, 419,936 or 97 per cent of the voters voted YES to a new constitution while 8,956 voted NO.
All opposition parties boycotted had boycotted the referendum.
THE FIFTH COUP:
Following the December 15, 1977 elections, the PPP/C with Janet Jagan as its presidential candidate won 55.5 per cent of the total votes cast while the PNC won 42.3 per cent.
For almost one year, a wave of violent street protests, wasted court actions and a boycott of the National Assembly took place.
A partial State of Emergency was declared for the city of Georgetown only.
This was in response to the threat to national security that had arisen.
The opposition PNC disregarded the State of Emergency declaring; “emergency or no emergency the protests will continue.”
The events culminated in a coup vis-a-vis the signing of the Herdsmanston Accord which saw the reduction of the Janet Jagan Presidency from five to three years and a slew of Constitutional amendments.
THE SIXTH COUP:
Guyanese witnessed the execution of a virtual coup staged on March 4, 202O when the Returning Officer for Elections District Four made a declaration signed by Volda Lawrence purporting to be the official results of the election.
Sinister efforts are now afoot to consummate a virtual coup to a reality show. From all indications, the plot it seems, is to create confusion during the recount and, in the course of the confusion, engage in mischief at the counting stations to give the APNU+AFC the majority votes that will validate the Mingo/Lawrence ‘declaration’.
The sixth coup would no longer be virtual, it would be a reality.
The task ahead for the accredited observers is to monitor the recount with considerable vigour, care and interest. In other words, to watch the process like hawks.
Another attempt to rig must not be allowed to pass.

Yours faithfully,
Clement J. Rohee

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