The attempt at elections’ rigging must not go unpunished

Aug 29, 2020 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

---

The PNC/R is politically bent and broken. It did irreparable damage to its political credibility and will find it next to impossible to rebound from the attempts to rig an election in the 21st century.
The PNC tried to stay in power despite knowing that it had lost the elections. It was determined not to concede and was prepared to remain in office against the democratic will of the people. And today some of its leaders have the temerity to be speaking about the incumbent government being illegitimate.
Such a narrative will not pass muster. The PNC/R is now a discredited and disreputable political entity whose supporters should demand that it be reconstituted because it will never win an election, with or without Coalition partners, if those who were complicit in electoral manipulation remain within the party.
Elements within and outside of the PNC/R continue to peddle the fictitious and woefully discredited narrative that the PNC/R was thrown out of power by foreign interference and local manipulation. The only manipulation during the elections was the PNC/R’s own brazen and shameless attempt to rig the elections.
The PNC/R stands little chance of doing well in the 2025 elections. The torture to which it subjected the country will hurt any possibility of its returning to office in 2025. It therefore has to look at 2030 but it will get nowhere if it attempts to regroup on the basis of falsehoods and denials.
If the PNC/R is to regroup and be ready for 2030 it has to do so from an honest appraisal of why the combined opposition gained almost 25,000 votes more than the APNU+AFC. The PNC/R cannot hope to have a comeback in 2025. Any such chances were destroyed by the party’s conspiratorial actions in the days and months which followed the elections. It cannot do so on the basis of lying to its supporters who know that they are being lied to.
The PNC/R has lost the respect of its decent-minded supporters. These proud and loyal supporters were forced to endure embarrassment as a result of the party’s attempts to rig the elections and to force them to accept a narrative of lies and concoctions. They will now break ranks with their party even if they do not support any other.
The PNC/R leadership disgraced itself in front of the eyes of the international community. No leader of any country in the world will want to be seen within a mile of electoral brigands.
The Coalition is now ostracized locally and internationally. It therefore could not mobilize the resources to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, there was under-testing and the virus is now rampant in the country because greater priority was given to electoral rigging than controlling the pandemic.
Lives have been lost that should not have been lost. The new government inherited a calamity and this can be traced right back to the blatant dishonesty of those who wanted to rig the elections and absolute mismanagement of the pandemic which this column has been consistently highlighting since March.
Peoples’ lives were put at greater risk in order for a small cabal to remain in power. How more irresponsible could a government become than to try to rig an election in the midst of a pandemic, knowing that its actions impeded accessing resources to bring the pandemic under control?
Look at the outcome. Exponential community spread of the COVID-19 virus is taking place. And all because there was limited testing based on symptoms displayed which meant that for months the virus was being spread asymptomatically. Politics trumped the pandemic and now people are dying and economic cost is multiplying.
What the PNC/R did to this country must never be forgotten. It must never be repeated. The attempt to thwart democracy must not go unpunished. Those who were complicit in the rigging of elections must face the consequences of their actions.
It is imperative that no effort be spared to bring those who were complicit in electoral fraud to justice. The best resources, including the hiring of international investigators, if needs be, should be considered.
Some of those complicit in undermining democracy will never see a plane door again. The sanctions which have been imposed will not be lifted, never ever. Those who aided and abetted, who condoned and who tried to create twisted narratives, including on social media, should equally face the consequences of their actions. Criminal charges should be prepared.
This is not an issue which should be taken lightly. It would be a travesty of the highest proportions if those who were complicit and those who aided and abetted the rigging are allowed to walk free because of poor investigations of weak prosecutions.

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

---

---