Guyanese were badly affected by outbursts of politicians

Jun 14, 2020 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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As we await the decision of GECOM on the results of the March 2, General and Regional Elections, the sensibilities of thousands of Guyanese were badly affected by outbursts from two regional politicians, one in the islands and the other right here at home in recent days.
The first amazing outburst came from the mouth of Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and incoming Chair of Caricom, Mr. Ralph Gonsalves. He charged during a radio interview last week that the Caricom monitoring team and GECOM should pay no real attention to claims of systematic fraud that the PPP perpetuated on the Guyanese people under the guise of free and fair elections.
Left to Gonsalves, who himself has been accused domestically and internationally of rigging the last three elections at home, these two entities should simply go by the numbers from the recount process and declare the PPP as the winner. “And anybody who then wants to challenge anything afterwards can go to court, but you have to declare the winner in accordance with the recount,” said the man who clearly favours the PPP. Gonsalves becomes rotating Caricom Chair on July 1, taking over from PM Mia Mottley of Barbados.
The second utterance came from none other than the most ‘holy bishop’ in Guyana, former PPP Junior Finance Minister, Juan Edghill.
Edghill went on a verbal rampage threatening the security of tenure of some civil servants and suggesting that decisions and awards made after the December 2018 no confidence motion would be disregarded by any incoming PPP administration. He promised sleepless nights for these categories of state workers.
“Whoever are involved in that and whoever are beneficiaries of such skullduggery, you gonna have sleepless nights starting tonight because you are hearing from the PPP/C by way of this programme. Don’t believe that you are going to walk away and smile and say you have a legal contract. You know fully well you should not have been going in that direction and you will have to face the consequences.”
As expected, the Administration of President David Granger was quick out of the blocks to take on both of these human beings in clear and direct terms.
For Gonsalves, the Coalition said that “the APNU-AFC is therefore concerned that as the Incoming Chair of the CARICOM, Dr. Gonsalves, has chosen to pronounce on a process that is still ongoing, and proposes to direct a constitutional body in another CARICOM Member State, in the execution of its duties. Further, the CARICOM Scrutineering Team has not yet submitted a report of its findings to GECOM, as it is mandated to do in keeping with the gazetted Order. Given these circumstances, it is most unfortunate that Dr. Gonsalves, who is himself currently embroiled in an Elections Petition in his own country, has taken a public position that is prejudicial to the integrity of the process and its eventual outcome.”
The Coalition also reminded all and sundry that the ongoing recount process is important and significant for democracy in Guyana and the wider region, as it noted the importance of regional leaders refraining from making irresponsible and damaging utterances at this time. One of the Caricom team members is in fact from St. Vincent and therefore, the PM’s statement remains of concern as to how such could affect his role.
Meanwhile, the People’s National Congress (PNC), one of the main parties in the Coalition, also took on Dr. Gonsalves. The Party urged GECOM to ignore Dr. Gonsalves’ statements and to continue its works without undue influences.
“The PNCR views this statement as a direct interference into the affairs of a sovereign nation, and more particularly the work of an independent constitutional agency, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). Further, Mr. Gonsalves’s direct appeal to influence the CARICOM Observation Team, whose report will form part of documents for GECOM’s consideration, is a blatant attack on the integrity of the CARICOM team, highly prejudicial, and serves only to undermine CARICOM’s efforts at being professional in arriving at a final credible process.”
Not forgetting Edghill’s social media attack, the Coalition condemned his outburst noting that the PPP is preparing for a mass witch hunt of state workers if it is declared the winner of the elections.
“The statements by Juan Edghill reflect the real PPP/C and their true position. And these statements made by him, have a tendency to, and have created anxiety among hard working public servants whose loyalty is not to a political party, but to the government of the day. That is the contract in which they signed. But Edghill who seems to be the voice of PPP/C to address certain ethnic issues, is adding fuel to an already charged political environment. Bharrat Jagdeo and Irfaan Ali and the leadership of the party must recognise that Edghill is doing them a disservice. If this is his way of making known his displeasure of being bypassed [for] the position of prime ministerial candidate in the PPP, Edghill must choose some other pulpit to vent his frustration. The APNU-AFC coalition wishes to give all public servants the assurance that they will be fully protected and Edghill’s threat will remain but an empty promise by an angry man.”

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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