Canadian High Commissioner does not deserve recall petition

May 11, 2020 Letters

Dear Editor,
Someone sent me a link to an online petition launched by PNC members to have Canadian High Commissioner Lillian Chatterjee recalled from her post in Georgetown. There is nothing unusual about such a petition. What is unusual is the event and/or reason given for it.
The incident that formed the basis of the recall is set out in an article, “Election Commissioners surprised by actions of Canadian High Commissioner” (State-owned Chronicle March 16th). PNC Commissioner Vincent Alexander told the paper, “I think she [H.C. Chatterjee] was intervening in the announcement being made by the Returning Officer [Clairmont Mingo] and she was running in the room telling us what we should do with relation to what was happening outside”.
The Guyanese people are now aware of the Mingo announcement. He had used a spreadsheet filled in with fictitious numbers of votes won by parties, instead of using the numbers from the Statements of Polls (SOPs); he did the tabulation, and was announcing APNU+AFC as the winner of Region 4.
From the words spoken by Alexander, it appears H.C. Chatterjee sought help from Officers of the Electoral Commission to stop what was taking place in real time. Had Chairperson Claudette Singh or Commissioner Vincent Alexander intervened and stopped the fraud, think of how different Guyana would have been today. The country had been in a state of paralysis and turmoil since the March 2nd elections; now 9-weeks later and still no result. The Guyanese nation stands diminished in the world community of nations, especially because five international observer teams comprising more than a hundred persons were eyewitnesses to Mingo’s flawed tabulation.
Parse the language of Alexander. He clearly does not understand the duties and responsibilities of the officers of an Election Commission – which is to make sure the elections are free and fair; results must be delivered in a timely manner and fraud guarded against.
If what Alexander told the Chronicle is true, Chatterjee was not intervening in a personal matter nor was she “barging” in on a ministerial cabinet meeting. She was shouting “Fire”, trying to alert the officers of the E.C. to stop a flawed tabulation in progress. Alexander’s actions undermine the independence of the Electoral Commission. In fact he wanted to vote to approve the Lowenfield report which sought to declare David Granger the winner of the elections based on Mingo’s tabulation.
In other democratic societies, given a reasonable set of election officials, Chatterjee would have been deemed a heroine. Here in Guyana, her actions provoked charged emotions among PNC supporters who are collecting signatures for a petition to be sent to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to have her recalled.
Meanwhile another group of Guyanese – who think H.C. Chatterjee, together with the diplomats of America, UK, and the EU are true heroes of the Guyanese Cause for free, fair elections – have launched a counter online petition supporting H.C. Chatterjee.

Yours truly,
Mike Persaud

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