Honouring recount results, let there be no disagreeing

Jun 07, 2020 Editorial

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The end to this long, much-disputed elections recount process is almost over, with only 167 ballot boxes left to count, as of Saturday morning. Suddenly, the finish line is in sight and almost within reach. The ABC and EU plenipotentiaries went public to thank the current leader of the nation and the Leader of the Opposition “for their support of the recount” and to remind them both of “their clear commitment to abide by the results” (KN June 6). It is our hope that leadership abiding by whatever result is declared by GECOM will grace the end of this tortured elections season.
We say this, even amidst great uncertainty and concern with some of the issues that have been raised and which do not build the needed confidence that this is going to climax and conclude smoothly and cleanly. In the last several days, the nation was reminded, time and again, of what was attempted with inflated numbers, and claims and counterclaims of deceptions and frauds on a massive scale. There is watchfulness at every action and every position of each of the political contestants, particularly the Coalition, as voiced by its agents on the ground at the Arthur Chung Convention Center and its other public spokespeople.
Something is not adding up, no matter how favourably viewed, through tactically laid building blocks that present an increasingly discomforting picture. It is as though there is slow methodical preparing for dropping the hammer on the nation in a way still largely disbelieved.
One day it is about the state, contents, and disposition of the ballot boxes, and who did or didn’t do what in relation to them. On another, the position is that dead people voted, many of them. Then, there are claims that overseas-based Guyanese voted by the droves. And then more arguments and clashing positions about the ballots for the Joint Services. Thus, the masonry is being erected towards unclear and unstated objectives. But there is one problem on which we zero in: Amidst all the talk, the claims, the allegations, a persuasive body of evidence is noticeably missing, with only the immaterial delivered. What is being served up lack substance, accuracy, and persuasive power.
To be clear: anyone – coalition, opposition, committed supporters, fence sitting citizens, neutral observers, objective contributors – can express any kind of allegation and protestation that comforts. It is a right and one to be well-received and respected, but only if such is accurate and built on sound bases; it is permissible and acceptable only, when it is supported by facts and evidence, the more the better. To this point, the Coalition has been a persistent study in allegations and objections, but it has also been a revelation in that it has had little of quantity or quality that materially contradicts where the credibility of the recount stands.
In spite of its lack of material or consequential elements of proof, the coalition’s narrative does not change. Instead, there is temporary retreating to gather breath, and early returning with what turns out to be the distractions of still more red herrings. Nobody with a measure of reasonableness about them is buying. With this said, it has to be appreciated that many in this society do not thrive on truth or accuracy, but what is found appealing to the fixed political and racial mindset that has long been nurtured. Reasoning and logic do not matter, emotional pulls and tribal allegiances are the things that find firm footing in this country, which tear us apart, and do help to set the stage for further challenges to the detriment of all.
It is why we are alarmed at ongoing developments in the recount process now almost over. All Guyanese should join with us in being similarly agitated when we conclude that the positions of the coalition are sketchy and devoid of strength: The strength of the evidence, the strength of the truth, the strength that comes from the power of credibility.
The bottom line is this: The Coalition either has facts and supporting evidence or it needs to stop going off on tangents to contest the recount. Since it does not appear to have any facts, or much of anything, it would be wise to retreat and regroup. Let the process move along without these unhelpful and unproductive interventions.
There is much that is wrong with what the Coalition keeps bringing to the table of the recount. To begin with, what the Coalition is doing amounts to obvious delaying tactics, and the introduction of positions that make its leadership look deceptive, when there is this continuing grasping for either the imaginary or the feeble. None other than the leader of the Coalition has gone on record to say that he will accept “whatever” result is declared by GECOM. That leaves no room for misreading or misinterpreting. For emphasis, we repeat our prior assertion: Like any other involved or interested party, the Coalition has every right to question and challenge whatever it detects to be against its interests, either in what is crooked or what is so blatant as to fly in the face of reason and standard practice.
But by the same token, whatever is put out before the public must not be spurious, it must be authentic, and all of it. It has an obligation to do so, and we call upon the Coalition as a responsible political group of national standing to do so. That is, deliver on the proofs and authenticity of its claims, for in so doing, the authenticity of its associated strategic objectives will then not be subject to any critical consideration. In terms of the latter (its objectives), and we do not hesitate to go there, there is considerable space to detect and appreciate that all of the allegations about ‘massive’ fraud are intimately related to possible calculations aimed at subverting the recount. Put differently, that after repeatedly articulating and spreading the myths of being cheated that it is prepping to dispute the recount by not adhering to any result that goes against it. We trust that nothing of the sort is contemplated.
With less than one week to go with the now extended recount, and given all of the destabilising developments, the Coalition’s endgame, whatever it is, will become obvious soon enough. We are hard pressed to visualise how anything less than the constructive and cooperative could be helpful to the nation, given how divided and suspended has been for so long.
It is our hope that the Coalition is not objecting so much to the point and for the purpose where the credibility and reliability of the entire 2020 elections are called into stormy disarray and endless disrepute. This can only have the worst consequences for this society. Many significant segments of the Guyanese populace and the international community would be much provoked and further unsettled that this country could descend into an irreversible nosedive.
As part of the watching and concerned international community, the OAS, on Friday, noted that “recount so far credible”. Separately, members of the US Congress pointed out that “Granger’s place in Guyana’s history at stake” (KN June 5), while other sections of the media encouraged the president to ensure “internationally recognised” declaration of results. Because of such clear positions, to deny the recount results would condemn this country into numerous crises. This kind of thinking would be ill-advised and ill-favoured by everyone starting with us at this paper. It should not be any part of any consideration or projection, and totally off the table. Let us not go there or get there.
What Matthew Arnold said a long time ago has poignant and extraordinary relevance for Guyana: “wandering between two worlds, one dead, the other powerless to be born”.
That sums up how and where we are. Come next week, and originally, the official end of the recount did promise to be the satisfying closure of this harrowing national journey, with the doorway to different and uplifting ones beckoning. In spite of our uncertainties and fears, we hope that it would be so. And as we do so, patriotic Guyana should do so, too.

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