REFLECTIONS

May 18, 2020 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

I have thought long and hard about writing this reflection and making it available. Nevertheless, here goes.
Thanks to the PPP, and later the PPP/C, I have had the privilege of participating in Guyana’s electoral process beginning from the December 16, 1968 elections as a Polling Agent for the party.
It was in that election that I witnessed rigging for the first time.
Local government elections were held in June 29, 1970, I was assigned responsibility as the Election Agent for North Georgetown. Those elections were flagrantly rigged in favour of the PNC.
For the elections held on July 16, 1973, I witnessed the army intervention in the elections held in that year. Three activists of the party were shot and killed at the close of poll in Berbice.
I represented the PPP as a Polling Agent and a Counting Agent for those elections.
The army facilitated the rigging results at its headquarters.
That is history and irrespective of how hard Mr. Granger tries, he cannot convince citizen Rohee otherwise.
Then came the referendum held on July 10, 1978 for a new constitution. That referendum was blatantly rigged. The opposition political parties boycotted the referendum.
I was fully involved in monitoring the events of that day together with other party comrades as well with representatives of other opposition parties who had come together to form the Committee in Defence of Democracy (CDD).
For the first time in our country’s elections history, election observers came to Guyana to observe the conduct of the referendum.
They were snubbed by the then President Burnham.The observers nevertheless remained in the country and completed their mission.
Elections were held again on December 9, 1985 following the promulgation of the new constitution in December 15, 1980.
President Burnham died on August 6, of 1985. Hoyte succeeded him.
In time for the elections to be held in that year, I was assigned by the party to serve on the Elections Commission, not yet called GECOM.
The Commission at that time comprised of myself as the sole representative of the PPP, two representatives of the PNC, a government nominated retired judge as chairman and a handpicked Secretary. It was a grueling experience.
The elections held on December 9, under President Hoyte were blatantly rigged.
Overseas observers came to Guyana to observe those elections which were described to be ‘as crooked as barbed wire.’
Hoyte came under immense pressure from the Commonwealth, Caricom, a number of American Congressmen and Senators, UK and Canadian members of parliament and a host on international non- governmental organizations to hold free and fair elections.
For the first time, the Carter Center formed part of the electoral front. They successfully brokered an agreement with Hoyte to institute a number of electoral reforms including, counting the votes at the place of poll, a reconstituted Elections Commission, a new voters’ list, overseas observers and access of opposition parties to state media.
Elections were postponed for two years to allow for the drawing up of a new voters’ list and for the passage of legislation in parliament to facilitate implementation of the reforms.
Elections were finally held on October 5, of 1992. I participated in the campaign as a candidate on the PPP/C’s list of candidates having resigned from the Guyana Elections Commission in 1991.
For the first time since 1968, the elections were free and fair. I was handed first, the responsibility of Minister without portfolio in the Office of the President and a mere few weeks later, the portfolio of Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Between 1992 and 2015, elections were free and fair and endorsed by overseas bservers, though question still remain on the basis of an elections petition concerning the veracity of the results of the 2015 elections.
At every election, won by the PPP/C since 1992, the PNC, later the PNC/R and much later the APNU in alliance with the AFC have been making protests, demonstrations over the conduct and results of the elections.
True, there were challenges but not of the contrived nature of what faces the nation now ever since passage of the No Confidence Motion in December of 2018 and the eventual holding of the March 2, 202O election.
As the PNC evolved ideologically, politically and organizationally, so did its membership. A new breed of leaders calling themselves politicians have seized power in the PNC.
Their behaviour is as mad as the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland.
Greed, hunger and love for absolute power has so engulfed them that they can’t think straight.
It is this new breed of leaders in alliance with a bunch of political opportunists in the leadership of the AFC who have taken Guyana down the path of destruction in their quest to hold on to power by all means.
Never in my more than fifty years in active politics and my active participation in eleven elections held in my country have I ever experienced a more bizarre, unbelievable and surreal electoral process as this one in 2020.
Maybe it has to do with the state of mind of the individuals who desperately cling to power not recognizing the shifting sands under their feet nor the wind of change blowing gustily from Point Playa to Moleson Creek.
They seem hell bent on taking our country into a no man’s land where we have never been before but it is situations such as this that creates a breeding ground for movements who are prone to resort to extremist actions as a means to achieving their goals.

Clement J. Rohee

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