Demonic clique engaged in vile attempts to hijack the Guyana country – CARICOM Chair

Jul 16, 2020 News

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By Kemol King

Chair of the Caribbean Community and Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves penned a scathing editorial yesterday on the Guyana situation, in which he condemned what he believes are vile, frivolous and vexatious attempts to hijack the country by a demonic, rogue clique constituted by the losers of the 2020 elections, the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) coalition.

His strongly worded statement comes in the wake of yet another legal showdown, initiated by the coalition, frustrating the declaration of the recount results, even though the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) handed down a judgment which laid out the way forward, since July 8.
“In a normal democracy,” the CARICOM Chair said, “what should be a straightforward matter of counting votes has become the equivalent of a long-running soap opera, pregnant with real danger for the people of Guyana and the Caribbean Community. This charade ought to be brought to an end immediately and a just declaration made by GECOM in keeping with the clear mandate delivered by the voters of Guyana and in accord with the Laws of Guyana and the CCJ’s judgment.”
“The CCJ’s judgment was lucid in every material particular,” Gonsalves posited, “And as Guyana’s highest, and final, appellate court, it is authoritative. Thus, any attempt, however ingeniously clothed, to litigate all over again this or that matter upon which there has been a final determination or upon which the CCJ has pronounced authoritatively, is tantamount to an abuse of the process of the court or is frivolous and vexatious.”
The coalition, through a supporter, has moved to court, resulting in the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) holding off on a declaration to accommodate it. In its case, it is arguing that any declaration based on the recount figures would be unconstitutional, offering instead, that a declaration of the results on the basis of the ten district declarations by the Returning Officers would be the lawful way to go. This is despite it being widely accepted that the March 13 Region Four declaration by Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo is fraudulent, and was overtaken by the results of the transparent national recount. The March 13 figures, previously held in abeyance pending the outcome of the recount, were also officially cast aside last week by the Commission.
Gonsalves noted the efforts of GECOM Chair, Retired Justice Claudette Singh to bring finality to the process using the results of the recount, and how they have been frustrated by “recalcitrant” Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield. The CEO has disregarded the directive of the Chair to prepare a report on the results of the recount, at least four times. These efforts form part of a total of six attempts he has made or is actively supporting since March 2 to alter the results of the elections to show a false win for the APNU+AFC coalition.
“The entire world realizes,” Gonsalves said, “that a small group of persons, in and out of Guyana, are seeking to hijack, in plain sight, the elections, and thus the country. Competitive elections deliver, necessarily, winners and losers. When you lose, you take your loss like a grown man or woman, and you move on peaceably to the role which the voters, in their collective wisdom, have assigned you.”
So far, the Commonwealth, the European Union, the Organisation of American States, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Dominica, and most recently Brazil have openly supported the CARICOM report and the national recount figures
“Yet, the dangerous games continue to be played by a minority of persons associated with the political entity which has plainly lost the election,” Gonsalves stated. “They are literally playing with fire, commotion, disorder, and civil war.”
He said that CARICOM’s leaders must not appear indifferent to or detached from this situation, and stand in solidarity with the people of Guyana, as the region has done in defence of Guyana’s territorial integrity: “Today, CARICOM defends democracy in Guyana; we defend the voters of Guyana; we are on the side of the angels in the stand-off between those who reject the people’s verdict and those who insist, properly, on its observance, recognition, formal declaration, and implementation.”
In response to calls for a democratic resolution to Guyana’s protracted 2020 electoral process, current and former CARICOM leaders and their countries have been ridiculed by APNU+AFC officials.
“These self-same vile and vulgar persons,” Gonsalves said, “having failed in their attempts to curse and bully Prime Minister Mia Mottley and former Prime Minister of Barbados Owen Arthur, and me, have now turned their demonic attention to senior staff members of CARICOM and other reputable persons in Guyana and the Caribbean Community.”
The CARICOM Chair said that he is deeply disturbed by this, and called on President David Granger to denounce those who have made such “threats, defamation and verbal abuse.”
Even in the face of those attacks, Gonsalves said, “We must continue, fearlessly, to do the right thing. The evil of the anti-democratic brigands must not be allowed any space to triumph.”
Gonsalves said that they cannot be allowed to disrespect the clear ruling of the CCJ. He pointed to the Charter of Civil Society, which Guyana is a signatory to, as well as the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and other documents which enshrine fundamental obligations of nation states to the CARICOM region: “The time for decisive action is shortly upon us. The voices of all decent men and women of democratic temper must join in the denunciation and condemnation of those whose nefarious agenda is antithetical to everything that is good and honourable in our Caribbean civilization.”
In closing, the Chair said, “I await, soonest, the declaration by the Chair of GECOM of the results of the elections. It is long overdue!”

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