A shameful episode in history of the country

Jul 25, 2020 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

Guyanese were long accustomed to electoral riggings committed by the PNC. But these were done in secret or behind closed doors utilizing varied stratagems. The refusal for the government to accept defeat after the votes were counted on March 3 was the first for the country. It is a most shameful resistance to defy the will of voters. A few countries in Africa tried such resistance but ultimately caved in. Guyana should not allow itself to be compared with African dictatorships. Since 1992, when democracy returned after 28 years of authoritarian rule, democracy has been institutionalized after a long battle against the oppressive dictators. Guyanese must never allow these gains to be reversed and must fight tooth and nail to have their votes that were recounted to be used for a declaration.
Guyanese in America are deeply disturbed by the reluctance of the Coalition Government to respect the rulings of the Guyana court on the election matter. In America, Guyanese are accustomed to a society of law and order and respect for court rulings. In fact, Guyanese and other minorities rely on the court for enforcement of their civic rights. They expect the same in Guyana where the incumbent government has been defiant against the international community and the court. The CCJ spoke definitively to bring finality to the election – use the recount to declare the results. That was three weeks ago, but it is being ignored and the judicial process in Guyana is being abused to prevent a declaration of the results.
In the US, Guyanese of all ethnicities, minorities relative to the dominant White race group, have been victims of racism and occasional electoral fraud. But when they approached the court, they got justice. When the court spoke, the government and the dominant White people who controlled the levers of power, listened and respect the law. It was the court that ended racial segregation and electoral fraud that empowered Black Americans. The court recognized the injustice of electoral fraud that prevented Blacks from getting a fair share of electoral representation and the court corrected it. It was also the court that corrected the historic injustice of segregation and lack of political representation in South Africa. White judges were relatively fair to the non-Whites like Blacks, Indians, and Coloureds or Mixed. The governments during and post-apartheid respected the rulings of the court. It is shameful that the same is not happening in Guyana whose final court declared that the recount exercise must be the basis for the declaration of the March 2 election. Imagine racist governments in South Africa and America, long opposed to equality and the right to vote for non-Whites, have gone past their racism and allowed Blacks, Indians, Mixed and others to vote and have their vote counted. But in Guyana, a non-White state, in this era of the year 2020, the government is unwilling to have the votes counted and used as the basis for an election declaration. A non-White government is unwilling to heed the ruling of a court. Such behaviour is worse than what happened in Jim Crow USA and apartheid South Africa. Guyanese and the people of the world will long remember this resistance to law and reluctance to accept electoral defeat as a most shameful episode in the history of Guyana if not the world. A government lost a free and fair election but is unwilling to step down. It is long past the time to put an end to judicial recourse as the plan to stop the declaration of the results.
And the court must also stop being a part of the plan to tolerate electoral fraud. Guyanese say some judges clearly compromised their integrity or a spirit of fairness that existed even among White racist judges in South Africa and America. The court must stop entertaining appeals and filings of matters that are ‘res adjudicata’ (already decided upon to finality). The current matter before the CoA should be dismissed quickly. Judicial integrity requires that judges act unanimously to throw it out. I recall in my studies of American constitutional law on desegregation (Brown vs Board of Ed), Chief Justice Earl Warren surveyed the judges and those who planned to vote no desegregation; he convinced them with lucid arguments why they must vote yes. No judge should oppose as important a matter as equality of all people regardless of race or colour. Likewise, no judge should oppose the transparent recount of votes to declare an election. No judge should dissent on the power of an election commission to instruct an election officer bent on perpetrating electoral fraud on a nation. Every vote is equal; none should be thrown out; racist White judges didn’t throw them out in America. The non-White people fought for justice. We remember well the struggle of Gandhi, Plessy, Mandela, Rosa Parks, King, Sohan Singh, Lewis, among others that led to our freedom. It was a long battle. But they persevered and won. The Whites heard their pleas, voices and cries and said enough was enough – they gave the non-whites their freedom and the right to vote and have their votes counted fairly.
The Government of Guyana must follow in the footsteps of those racists in America and South Africa – and free their people. The Guyanese people and the world anxiously await if judges will make a similar ruling that 33 is not a majority of 65 or ‘more votes’ means ‘valid votes’. Is there such a thing as counting ‘invalid votes’, non-Guyanese ask.

Yours truly,
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

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