Religious bodies urge Granger to concede with “grace and dignity”

Jun 20, 2020 News

The members of the Centre for Inter-Religious Dialogue, in a press release yesterday, are calling on President David Granger to concede these elections with grace and dignity.
This release came after a motion was filed in the Appeal Court to stop Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield, from submitting his report to the GECOM Chair R’td Justice Claudette Singh. The CEO’s failure to submit his report has prevented the Chair from making a declaration.
The statement noted that the GECOM Chair deemed the March 2 General and Regional Elections as being free, fair and credible: “This was endorsed by all the local and international observes and all political parties that were contenders of the election.”
A clear description of the events that occurred thereafter was given, highlighting the controversial tabulation process for District 4, with an infected declaration made on March 5, which was later pronounced as unlawful by Chief Justice Roxanne George.
“Following orders from the Chief Justice,” the statement said, “the process was continued, in an opaque manner causing deliberate confusion. It produced a District 4 declaration on March 13, 2020 which was unacceptable by eight of the nine contesting political parties, by local and international observers due to its infection with fraudulent data and lack of transparency.”
It was noted by the Centre, that only “after much public outcry and condemnation locally and internationally, the President and the Leader of the Opposition and all the contesting political parties agreed to a CARICOM proposal for a total recount of all the electoral districts as a means of assuaging the contesting political parties and determining a final and credible count.”
The conclusion of that recount identified the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) as the winner of the elections with 233,336 valid votes and the A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition with 217,920 valid votes.
In summarizing the list of events emanating from the March 2 General and Regional Elections, it is noted by the Centre that “it is without doubt that the incumbent APNU+AFC party has lost the elections, status as Government and the Presidency.”
“Corinthians reminds us,” the release said, “that we must take pains to do what is right not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of man,” the statement noted. It went on to say “Hindus worship Lord Vishnu as Satyanarayana, the Lord of Truth and our Hindu scriptures tell us to embrace Dharma (ethics, honesty and integrity).”
It is in this regard that the members of the Centre for Inter-Religious Dialogue of Guyana “call on President David Granger to concede these elections with grace and dignity. Our religion teaches us to uphold truth and to disavow falsehood. So it was said and so it shall be.”

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