Was this an intelligence-gathering operation or impersonation?

Jun 18, 2022 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – The 1985 general and regional elections were the most incompetently rigged elections. The rigging was so inexpert that even the blind could have seen the gross irregularities and the manufacturing of the results.
Those results gave the PNC 42 of the 53 seats in the National Assembly. The PPP was handed a mere eight seats.
It remains something of a mystery why onto this day none of those who padded the ballot boxes and corrupted the results has ever come out and confessed to what took place. But such has been the loyalty of the riggers that none seem to have suffered from a guilty conscience.
Following the exposure of those elections, a court action was filed but the court ruled that the complainants needed to go via an election petition. That effectively ended any legal attempt to challenge the results.
The PNC, however, was exposed for its election rigging. There was even a proposal made by then Dominica’s Prime Minister to have Guyana suspended from the Caribbean Community but after Hoyte made some commitments, the leaders of Caricom at a special summit in Mustique opted not to go along with any sanction.
On polling day, Cheddi Jagan and a British journalist, Anthony Jenkins were assaulted at a polling station in Haslington, East Coast Demerara. Jagan was pushed down a stair by thugs summoned by a polling official and the British journalist was roughed up and had his clothing thorn.
But even after the bogus result was announced, the rogue PNC regime was not finished with Jagan. They had a motorcycle assigned to the traffic department at Brickdam Police Station following Jagan’s car wherever it was going. There was no attempt at any secret surveillance; it was done openly and with the clear intention of political intimidation.
In the political meetings which the PCD launched to protest the rigging, Jagan’s security was beefed-up. Whenever he rose to speak from the back of an open pickup, two strapping security details would flank him.
The memory of Walter Rodney’s assassination was still fresh. And therefore the PPP was taking no chances, especially considering the harassment which the opposition supporters were subjected.
The PPP was not the only party which suffered harassment. A well-known Lindener was reported to have also subjected activists of the Democratic Labour Movement (DLM) – one of the seven parties which contested the poll – to harassment.
Having police following the Opposition Leader is therefore not a novel political development in Guyana. It was also not unknown for this to be done openly and undisguised.
A video has surfaced of an exchange between the present Leader of the Opposition and two persons, dressed as policemen on a motorcycle. The Opposition Leader was overheard calmly enquiring as to why they were following him, especially since he had done no wrong. One of the men was heard saying that they were only following instructions.
One senior official of the Guyana Police Force is reported to have said that he was not aware on any surveillance of the Leader of the Opposition. The Minister of Home Affairs has also expressed the opinion that the trailing of the Leader of the Opposition was “untidy, unnecessary and useless”.
He made it clear that the government was not in the business of following people around like that. But of course, the government has no control over operational matters of the Special Branch.
There has been no attempt to identify who were the persons tailing the Leader of the Opposition, and if indeed these were members of the Guyana Police Force. Merely having persons dressed like police does not mean that they were police.
What was even more interesting is that no attempt has been made by the media to investigate whether the motorcycles being used were indeed ones which are usually used by members of the Guyana Police Force. If the motorbikes being used were not standard police issued bikes, then the possibility exists that the persons following around the Leader of the Opposition could be imposters.
Such a development will throw a completely different complexion on the development. If, on the other hand, the personnel allegedly following the Opposition leader around, were from the Special Branch – the section of the Guyana Police Force which deals with political intelligence – then this was either an incompetent operation or one clearly intended to intimidate the Leader of the Opposition.
This development comes just prior to the announcement, by the President, of an international commission of inquiry into the 2020 general and regional elections. Are the security forces concerned that the Opposition may try to do something to abort the commission of inquiry, thus necessitating the close marking of the opposition political figures?
(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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