Unyielding Coalition calculation and position

May 17, 2020 Editorial

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The Coalition has given every indication that it is ready to contest every centimeter of elections territory that it will not yield a single millimeter in this slow and tortured elections recount process that crawls forward on its belly.
It has signaled in its words and postures, right from the inception, that it is committed to challenge every point, every development, all the way to the bitter end, if that end stage can ever be reached.
We also have our own immovable position: it is that the increasingly precarious journey of this national recount must be allowed to continue its course all the way to its conclusion. Let the full story of Elections 2020 be revealed if only to illuminate in the entirety of its narrative. It must no longer be that of one political side only dominating with insistences about the truths of its positions, but of all the shadowy consequential bits and pieces that add up to deliver the brightest of clarities and no more unsolved mysteries. The president himself has said that the outcome will be respected.
Win, lose, or draw, it is our expectation and that of all Guyana that this respect for the outcome will materialize and from every quarter.
But, most distressingly, to get to any conclusive endpoint, we have first to deal with the cast-iron character that transfuses politics in Guyana today. There is no give, absolutely no retreat, by one side or the other in this groin-piercing brawl. First, it was the opposition with its sharp objections, which were listened to and given much follow-up support by many voices local and foreign. By that standard, the same is due to the coalition: it has a right to a complete presentation. Let the stories be told.
It must present quickly and thoroughly its research ‘facts’, immigration records, exhibits, and other proofs, in support of its unalterable pronouncements that it has been the victim of skillful deceptions and massive cheating all along. The time for this kind of longstanding talking is over; it is time to deliver what is in hand for the closest scrutiny. The expectation is that whatever is shared must be sufficient and material enough to make a difference, one way or another, in what has played out and where things in the original count stand at present. It is our hope that what the coalition has in its grasp is neither so narrow nor so limited that it cannot be accepted as reliable or accurate or meaningful.
It is appropriate at this point that we remind all readers that we, at this paper, have our individual political preferences. But we also have a professional obligation to be clinical and objective, through remaining above the fray in what is a tempting journalistic and environmental loser’s game.
We so state because those who lose balance in this most ruthless of political and racial milieus run the risk-the very high risk-of being painted with the broadest of blistering brushes to picture raw partisanship, and all the naked prejudices that are automatically attached.
Nonetheless, even as we emphasize this, there are some elements underlying the entire elections’ exercise-now tawdry beyond description and scarred beyond recognition-that deeply trouble. From its initial confident and sustained position, the coalition, through its commissioners, its insiders, its strategists, all the way to its once well-regarded leader, appears to know something that no one else in this country, or in the closely watching contingent of observers, does not know.
Indeed, the coalition has stepped forward to share that it knows a few things that were/are fundamentally flawed relative to Elections 2020.
With this in mind, and with its latest positions and allegations functioning as supporting contexts, we ask again: what are those electorally and recount components that are still known only to itself? Where are the consequential details regarding immigration, deceased voters, fake ID cards, and the rest that must be all brought as swiftly as possible before GECOM and thereafter into the public arena? Are they quantitatively and qualitatively significant enough to have a material impact on results, as claimed before by the supposedly winning group?
We would like to know and the patient, longsuffering public is owed the courtesy of some enlightenment. Though the coalition may have be able to link alleged irregularities with actions of its chief political opponent, it certainly does lay the foundation to question the whole process starting with that bloated list, which laid the groundwork for many trickeries.
We tender this because now is not the time to be coy or clever by withholding information or dissembling astutely. It is imperative that the coalition come forward and display all the cards in its possession. The coalition has to do more than hold back the tide of skepticism; whatever it does deliver must succeed in turning the narrative about its cheating on its head and essentially reverse what has prevailed since March 3rd.
The chasm of disagreement is vast, which the following statements evidence. “I have never seen a more transparent attempt to alter the results of an election” was the position of the OAS Observer Mission Chief. And, from the coalition, which found that statement “wholly biased and partisan” (KN May 14). Which is which, or has more substance speaking to the real truth? It is but one indication of how far things and parties are apart in this destructive recount process, the whole Elections of 2020 now, when all is studied and reviewed.
Separately, the US Ambassador sees no “overstepping” on the part of the international community. Some troubled Guyanese see too much closeness and interference. Some opinion contributors call for honoring recount results, others say test for authenticity. Everyone believes that their positions are based on the fairest and wisest of evaluations, with the irresolution of a vast no man’s land standing as testimony of how far apart and irreconcilable the main parties are.
It is our hope that, in the interests of clarity and bringing closure to Guyana’s now nightmarish elections, what the coalition has in its grasp is powerful evidence that solidifies the positions on which it has long insisted. That is, it is the coalition group that is the one being victimized and cheated, and not the other way around.
We would trust, also, that this latest development from the coalition about contamination is not built on bluff. Or that it is not part of a nefarious plan to delay and derail further elections disputed beyond intellectual imagination and any ethical boundaries. It would be an unpardonable waste of time and resources, both of which are in short supply. If so, then a great injustice would have been done, leaving us nationally poorer, and racially weaker.
There should be no mistaking that we have gone out of our way to extend listening and receptivity to the most bandied about aspect of the sordidness of what has been wounding Guyanese elections. In spite of our own impatience and distaste, we have refrained from pointing a single finger at anyone alleging that most unsettling and infuriating word in Guyana’s elections dictionary. That word is rigging.
The coalition has long insisted on the cleanliness of its hands. We say show them and help the country move out of its comatose state, this deathlike trance.
It is time to deliver on its assertions; or, failing that, to depart gracefully with as much dignity as can be mustered. For the last time: it is time to put on the table of consideration what could rise to the level of only one of three things: fact, or fiction, or fantasy.
As a sign of our deepening pessimism, we think that we are whistling past the graveyard. Regardless, let this whole sorry business be allowed to shake out to its natural conclusion. Let it be over.

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