Delusions of Desmond Trotman and Vincent Alexander 

Sep 25, 2023 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR, 

Kaieteur News – Desmond Trotman and Vincent Alexander, on Sep 10, 2023, penned the letter, “PPP/C’s resistance to electronic fingerprint capture and identification at polls signals intent to retain system that facilitated voter rigging.” This is like a big, fat LOL. The letter beats the ridiculous and goes to the ludicrous. No wonder I am compelled to make a few utterances in response.

First, even the most die-hard media follower is likely to experience ‘persecuting ennui’ in reading their missive. It meanders ‘here, there and everywhere’ and makes ‘verbosity’ look like a summary. For example, the first paragraph sets the tone for prolonged tedium. Read it: “It seems as if there is never a dull day, these days, on our political landscape, as the country continues, oxymoronically, to be taken down that dark, undemocratic, autocratic and dictatorial path in the name of righteousness. I am advised that in some circles Jagdeo is regarded as a Deity, thus his word is Gospel and all others are heresy. That obviously is not applicable to the real adherents of democracy.”

If this is indeed their ‘thesis statement’, it gets the ‘F’ grade instantaneously. It is fraught with words. It points to nothing specific. And I am left in limbo regarding what is the thrust of all these words. Thus I will just make a general response.

First, on a more serious base now, I point to the reality of the contention of Desmond Trotman and Vincent Alexander. Their angst revolves around Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo’s remark that the “PNCR-led APNU must acknowledge ‘election(s) rigging’ before involvement in executive.”  They opined that “This is tantamount to non-recognition of the election results by virtue of which the PPP/C is in government. That is probably apt given all of the ‘unresolved shenanigans’ surrounding a significant number of votes for which validating documentation mysteriously disappeared.”

Editor, the very next statement debunks this nonsense of ‘non-recognition of the election results’ and ‘unresolved shenanigans.’  As they rightly put it, it is indeed that  “… said election, validated by  the Caribbean Court of Justice, and which finally allowed the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) to occupy the seat of government.” And how did this ultimately happen (after some five months)?

Let me summarize. 

As we can all recall and reread, there was the elections recount, proposed by David Granger himself. This was agreed to by the PPP/C, and was observed by representatives of all the nine (9) political parties which contested the elections. Also, there were  observers from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Organisation of American States (OAS) and local observers, including the Private Section Commission and American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) .

That scenario was predicated by the tabulation of Statements of Poll (SOP’s) that was interrupted in District Four (Demerara-Mahaica) when in order to evade defeat,  Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo, switched from the ‘legal procedure’ that ensures transparency (where each SOP had to be exhibited to the stakeholders present to enable comparison to their copies.

However, Mingo diverted to a procedure where the purported numbers from the SOP’s were incorporated into a consolidated spreadsheet. This, as expected, precipitated the immediate and urgent call for transparency from both local and international observers. This was to preclude ‘cheating’, the very thing that Trotman and Alexander are accusing the PPP/C of.

Please note that the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC) coalition, never once protested the chicanery that facilitated the infamous’ inflation of the votes’, intending to gift APNU/AFC victory.

I remind readers that following a High Court’s decision, Mingo was ordered to revert to the legal, ‘prescribed procedure’ but he flouted the ruling and repeated his intrigue, and submitted totals that varied substantially from those of other parties and had the APNU/AFC ahead rather than the PPPC.

I really want these two men to dwell on the fact that the Chairwoman of GECOM, retired Justice Claudette Singh, had agreed to a recount of the all votes, which had been proposed by caretaker President David Granger and agreed to by Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo after an intervention by several Caricom leaders. Yet the APNU/AFC is acting as though PPP/C were running from the truth.

I will not get to the repeated silly ‘waste-of-time’ appeals from APNU/AFC; they were all shut down by the CCJ. I add that Trotman and Alexander be reminded that Granger and Basil Williams, along with their APNU/AFC leaders, prior to the beginning of the count, clearly pronounced that the elections were well-run. After all, they were in power.

Furthermore, I support Jagdeo and his ilk  as they “… stand on in their demand for an apology, from the APNU for alleged electoral rigging… ” As a matter of fact, APNU should repeatedly apologize for leading their very own people down a legal and political cul-de-sac. I mean at every juncture, the CCJ made them look like school-boy thieves, beginning from No-Confidence Motion, to the illegal installment of now late Retired Judge James Patterson as GECOM Chair, to the challenging of the Elections Declaration. It is just way too much.

So, the conclusion is most bizarre, that is of Trotman and Alexander, saying that “The accusation of rigged elections is probably most applicable to the PPP/C than it may be to any other political party” I am sure that whatever it will takes to run-off  ‘’fair and free’ elections in Guyana, even it means, a ‘hands-off’ approach’ by one and all, the PPP/C will facilitate. It may one day mean that Guyana’s elections, personnel and machinery will be under the aegis of some external independent body. I guess if and when this happens, the Trotmans ands Alexanders will still ‘bitch’ and ‘cry foul.’

Yours truly,
HB Singh

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• American Chamber, APNU-AFC, Bharrat Jagdeo’s, Progressive Party, the Organisation, Trotman and Vincent Alexander, Vice President

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