No stone must be left unturned

Oct 07, 2020 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News –  There was a criminal conspiracy to steal the 2020 elections. This attempt had to have had its political architects and masterminds. In order to be executed, it required persons who commit fraudulent acts or to condone or be complicit in those acts.
Both the masterminds and those involved in executing this dastardly plan must face justice. It would be an unimaginable travesty if those involved escaped the hands of the law.
The Guyanese people resisted that attempt to steal the elections. It took five months and involved numerous court cases and denunciations by the international community for the attempt to be rebuffed.
Guyana was shamed and disgraced in the eyes of the international community. Former Prime Minister of Jamaica, Bruce Golding, who headed the Observer Mission of the Organization of American States said that he had never seen a more transparent attempt to steal an election. Others spoke about what they saw as a blatant attempt to hold on to power at all costs.
The attempt to rig the elections was barefaced. It was done in open view of diplomats and the international community. The evidence – both circumstantial and direct – would appear to be overwhelming. The results from some polling stations for Region Four did not accord with the Statements of Polls held by the then Opposition political parties. The tabulations moved from these statements to a spreadsheet and then later to a bed sheet. This was done in full view of the representatives of the political parties and the international community. The results of the nine other regions did not present the same discrepancies. It was only in one Region where this attempt to steal the elections took place and it took place after the votes had been counted at the places of poll.
Having failed in that plot to steal the elections, there was another attempt to declare incorrect results by invalidating votes. This led to numerous court challenges before finally, it was resolved and the recount results were allowed to stand. Any last-ditch attempt to scuttle the results was aborted after the United States imposed travel restrictions on a number of government officials.
Those who stood in defence of democracy then must not assume that their work was completed after the final declaration of the results were made. Their work is not over. There is unfinished business.
Those who were complicit in rigging the elections and undermining the elections are guilty of a criminal act. They must face the consequences. It is the duty of the guardians of democracy to ensure that what happened between March and August – incidentally in the midst of a pandemic – must not reoccur ever again in the history of this country.
Those complicit must be brought to justice. But this must include the political masterminds who were behind this sinister plot.
Visa restrictions have been placed on those whom the United States had designated as being complicit in undermining democracy, either through their condoning of certain things or their silence. There must be a strong and unrelenting lobby to ensure that these persons are never again allowed to travel to the United States or for that matter to Canada, the United Kingdom or the European Union, which had all signalled that they would take action.
What happened in Guyana must never repeat itself. No one should, even in the future, harbour any thoughts or illusions about rigging an election. And it is because of this that those who stood up against electoral dishonesty must now stand up and insist that those who were complicit in undermining democracy between March and August of this year face the full consequences of the law.
No effort should be spared to ensure that those involved are successfully prosecuted. International legal assistance should be sought to bring those involved to justice. No stone must be left unturned in this regard. A wider international investigation is needed involving international experts. Such an investigation would avoid the charge of a local witch-hunt.
There are forces who do not wish for justice to be served. They are afraid that their names will be called and so they are stirring unrest in the country. But that should not deter the efforts to hold persons responsible for the attempt to steal the elections.
Unless these persons are brought to justice, what happened between March and August will be attempted again and democracy will be permanently dead in this country. Those who held this nation hostage by their attempts to rig the elections must, in the words of Al Pacino in the movie Justice for All, “should go right to fu*#%ng jail!”
(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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