As we count down to the anniversary, questions need answers

Jul 27, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – In a week’s time, it will be one year of a brand new presidency, a presidency that almost didn’t make it. I go back to my offerings a year ago, and in looking at them now, I see the questions now that back then were swirling all over the country.
There was one particular inquiry people were making – was there a coup? A coup is different from a putsch. So I used the latter description. See my acceptance that after March 4, 2020, a putsch was in the making in the following columns of mine. March 18, 2020, “Deadly power struggle inside the PNC.” Friday March 20, 2020, “Roy Beepat and the putsch in Guyana.” And Saturday June 20, 2020, “Theorising on the putsch in Guyana.”
The then Commissioner of Police, Leslie James, had retired during the ending part of the election’s controversy. Some said it could have been motivated by visa sanctions. We will never know if Mr. James was sanctioned but his picture was conspicuous during the election vortex.
First, the Assistant Commissioner, Edgar Thomas, was removed from his position of officer in charge of the GECOM Command Centre in the Ashmin Building after he refused a request allegedly from Deputy Chief Election Commissioner, Roxanne Myers, to eject Commissioner, Sase Gunraj, from the building.
Surely, in those circumstances, the chief of police had to be made aware that the removal of Mr. Thomas from his post had taken place. But more importantly, given Mr. Thomas’ top-level rank, who other than James had the authority to assign him to banal road duties?
Secondly, in countless video clips, police officers could be seen preventing bona fide officials of the opposition parties from entering the Command Centre. The climax of these excessive atrocities by the police force was when the police arrogated to themselves the right to stop persons from entering the office of the GECOM Madam Chairperson even though on the phone she had asked those persons to visit her.
Thirdly, at one stage of the election rigging, the police security assigned to the Madam Chairperson was removed and replaced by the details from private security firms. Did the Madam Chairperson request it? Was she afraid that the police could not have been trusted?
Fourthly, the police requested the owner of Giftland Mall to remove the security cameras from the mall that look directly onto the courtyard of the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC). This was indeed evidence that the police were heading in the direction of a putsch.
Fifthly, the police had no authority to expel a GECOM Commissioner, Robeson Benn, from the compound of the ACCA when the ballot boxes arrived for the CARICOM supervised recount. The police removed a constitutional office-holder whose business was to be in the ACCA as the ballot boxes arrived.
Fifthly as the riggers from the PNC and AFC invented conspiracies to derail the election, both of these parties claimed that Guyanese who had foreign citizenship had come down to Guyana and voted. They had in their possession the immigration documents of these people, who had in fact never left Guyana. How were they able to get these police documents?
Mr. James had faded from the view but he must be summoned by the judicial inquiry into the election, whenever it is held, to testify about these sinister manoeuvres by the police force.
There are questions about certain doctors too. Now that we are nearing the anniversary of the new government, these doctors need to answer some questions. In the book, “Democracy in Distress” by Stephen Kissoon, the author reproduced a Facebook page by a PPP leader who is currently the Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony.
Dr. Anthony named Drs. Colin James, Leston Payne, Julian Amsterdam, and Nadia Liu as advising that for the recount in the ACCA, a mask as precaution against Covid-19 will have to be changed every 30 minutes, making it a requirement to have 66,000 masks. Dr. Anthony went on to add on his Facebook page that even in a less secure environment than the ACCA, they do not as a rule change a mask as often.
Maybe as the drama fades into the background and the new government gets on with its work, these doctors and the former Commissioner of Police could provide some answers to what were eye-raising situations back then in April, May and June last year. Finally, why has there been total silence on the part of the then Minister of Public Security since March 2020 about the Russians who came to help the PPP manage the election, and how was that logistically possible.
(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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