Some played behind the scene role to deter 2020 rigging

Apr 29, 2022 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Reference is made to Kit Nascimento’s answer to my question (Apr. 27) of why the coalition sought to rig the election after the count rather than during and or preceding the election. I thank him for an eloquent, crisp, concise response — coalition confidence that it would win was probably the underlying factor against pre-election rigging. I would like to acknowledge the role played by Nascimento, Norman McClean, and former associates of the PNC to combat rigging in 2020. I was at Ashmin’s building daily from March 3 witnessing the shameless, bold-faced acts of skullduggery being unfolded as they did. And they, like Bharrat Jagdeo, Irfaan Ali, Anil Nandlall, Vindhya Persaud, and several others, publicly and courageously condemned the rigging.
As Nascimento rightly stated, the delay in calling the election following defeat in the no confidence motion, the CCJ’s ruling ordering the removal of James Patterson as GECOM Chair, the massive presence of observers, among other factors, contributed to the almost impossibility of rigging. Charandass Persaud’s vote for the NCM, bringing down the government was seen by many as saving democracy in Guyana stymieing any plan to rig and clearing the way for election that would propel the PPP into government. Without Persaud’s vote, the riggers would have had time to plan and implement their nefarious acts. One element missing in Nascimento’s explanation of combating or deterring the rigging was the role of a few working behind the scenes involved in gathering intelligence on the planned rigging (skullduggery) of the count and recount and planned judicial interventions allowing people like me to expose nefarious activities. The intelligence gatherers, like the ABCE diplomatic community and observers, that handful of individuals, were also heroes. The public is not aware of the critical role they played.
The question in my missive was rhetorical. I and the public knew why there was the attempt to rig after the count. Nevertheless, I thank Nascimento for regurgitating facts of the rigging. The diplomatic community, led by the US, was instrumental in exposing and combating the fraud. The commonwealth and Caribbean experts were the guiding light in helping to deter declaration of a rigged outcome. The scrutiny and guidance of the electoral experts from Ghana and India held sway over some GECOM officials from going overboard in facilitating the rigging. And writers in the media like Freddie Kissoon, myself, among a few others, almost daily exposed the rigging and excoriated the riggers putting them to shame.
But there were also the few silent behind the scene players who and whose work were/are not known but who I know and recognise as unsung heroes. They provided intelligence to me about aspects of the planned skullduggery. They infiltrated a political camp and riggers within GECOM and extracted info about moves or plans of the riggers. A businessman provided key funding to acquire information that was passed on to me and others. Information came to me as though I was some kind of coordinator to expose the rigging and planner of counter-rigging measures. Indeed, I exposed aspects of skullduggery activities and planned violence deterring or stalling their implementation. The information was also passed on to diplomats and key election observers and opposition figures. I don’t know the extent to which the PPP or other opposition officials, diplomats, observers, GECOM Chair, and Commonwealth electoral experts were aware of the plan or activities to rig the election that included manipulation of the count, violence, judicial intervention, among other measures. Critical information was made available to me – perhaps because of the respect individuals have for me.
Some of the information on activities brought to my attention long before they were made public included but not limited to: arrival of a crew from Jamaica with expertise to remove undetected ballot boxes container doors, turning off Giftland cameras, legal approaches to the court, instructed judgments by functionaries of the judiciary, walking out of commission and or non-participation of GECOM meetings to avoid a quorum, planned violence, manipulating the certification of count (SOPs), discarding of numbers of re-count (techniques) to disenfranchise votes en bloc on flimsy grounds, defiance of the recount numbers, refusal to follow the directive of the Chair to prepare the validity of the recount numbers, among other strategies. All these and more acts were known to me ahead of their implementation. Appropriate actions were taken to derail some of them.
I would like to think that the information gathered from underground sources helped to derail the rigging plan. I want to thank those who went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure democracy was protected and that the will of the electorate prevailed. For their protection, I cannot mention the names of the businessman who provided funding to ferret information and those who infiltrated a political camp for intelligence gathering. They know who they are; they too are heroes. Some of them have been without a job since the change in administration, and regrettably I am in no position to help them. The businessman complained to me about aspects of governance and awarding of state contracts. Also, one of his kin was victimised for resisting financial skullduggery.
Infiltration of the rigging team was costly. No political party or business person, or beneficiaries of contracts since the change in administration, have made any effort to compensate those who spent energy, risked their safety, sacrificed time away from family, and suffered loss of income to save democracy in our homeland. One businessman has offered some assistance for my political surveys. That is an unfortunate nature of our politics. Democracy has been protected and we ought to be grateful to all, including those who gathered information and those who protected the containers storing the ballot boxes, for their role during the five months election count and recount saga.

Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram

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