When you begin to believe your own lies!

Sep 30, 2022 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Kaieteur News – The height of political delusion is when a political party and its sidekicks end up believing its own false or discredited narratives. It appears as if the APNU+AFC has now succumbed to this malady and is now into believing its own lies.

The APNU+AFC first claimed that it had won the elections of March 2^nd, 2020 and that its statements of polls would bear this out. It has never produced these statements of polls to establish the veracity of its contention that it won the election. If indeed it had such evidence, it would have produced the statement of polls and would have upturned any attempt to install the PPP/C in Government.

By the morning after the elections, word had seeped out that the PPP/C had won the elections. One ardent supporter of the APNU+AFC took to social media to claim that she had heard that the PPP/C had won the elections. She then broke down in tears and threw a tantrum. She urged that if it was necessary to rig the results this should be done.

In the days that followed it became clear that a process of rigging the results of the elections had been set in motion. But this process was obstructed by vigilant international observers, the diplomatic community and the Opposition political parties.

After President Granger opted to have the matter settled through a recount of all the votes cast, a new narrative was concocted. This narrative was that dead and migrant persons voted. In support of this narrative a list of names was submitted to GECOM. The media, however, got wind of the list and began to expose the falsities of the claims. This is what inevitably happens when lies are peddled. One lie leads to another and another and the stream of lies cannot end.

The Opposition, however, having ascended onto a platform of a false narrative found it difficult to climb down from this. Desmond Hoyte faced a similar dilemma when he tried to assert that the 1997 elections results were flawed. A CARICOM audit of the results – in which every ballot box was recounted – proved him wrong but because of silly pride he stuck to his contention, even though he had to have known the true result of the elections.

It is one thing to know the true result but paint a different picture. It is another thing to end up believing the false narrative that one is presenting.

The APNU+AFC has stuck to its discredited narrative that the elections were marred by ghost and migrant voting. Faced with an impending Commission of Inquiry which would allow it to establish its case of massive electoral fraud, there now appears to be an attempt to ask the GECOM to investigate the very list which the Coalition had submitted and which had been discredited by media investigations.

There has been an attempt to ask GECOM to launch its own investigation into the alleged irregularities. But those making this application ought to know that GECOM is proscribed from doing so. The Constitution of Guyana makes it explicitly clear, a position ventilated in court proceedings, that it is only the High Court which has exclusive jurisdiction to determine whether any election has been affected by any illegality or omission.

The Caribbean Court of Justice has already held that the National Assembly (Validity of Elections) Act provides that the method for questioning the validity of an election is by an election petition. The CCJ also held that the Chairman of GECOM was perfectly entitled and right to take the positions that allegations (of fraud or omissions) should be addressed by an election petition filed in the High Court.

Based on the Constitution and the ruling of the CCJ, GECOM cannot arrogate to itself the role of investigating questions relating to the validity of the elections. The CCJ had also said that the Chairman of GECOM was right in asserting that GECOM lacked the legislative authority and machinery to undertake such an investigation. In other words, GECOM cannot assume the role of an election tribunal or Court; this would be outside of its lawful authority.

The Government has established a Commission of Inquiry into the elections. Those alleging fraud will have the opportunity to prove their case in front of the whole world. But one suspects that when delusion meets reality, those who are claiming fraud will duck and hide.

(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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When you begin to believe your own lies!

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