Why was there an attempt to rig the elections?
Kaieteur News – The year 2020 will be remembered for the attempt to rig Guyana’s elections on 2 March 2020. The Head of the Observer Mission of the American Provinces Organization (OAS) described the attempt as the most transparent attempt to change the election results he has ever seen.
The PNC had a famous record of electoral rigging. He has tried to delete this image but his past came back to plunder them.
In pre-1992 elections, the PNC regime had returned to grabbing and stuffing the ballot boxes, padding the foreign voter list and matching its own results. The rigging began in 1968. Peter D’Aguiar, a former lieutenant for the PNC, and leader of the Unified Police, announced “Calling him an election is giving a name he doesn’t deserve; fraudulent seizure of power, not election. ”
The 1973 elections were described as “fairy tale” elections. The British Parliamentary Observer Group described the 1980 elections as “more crooked than barbed wire.” The most untested and crudest election rigging happened in 1985 under Desmond Hoyte.
The 2020 elections saw two kinds of attempts to change the results of the elections. The first was to insert false results during the tabulation of results for Region Four. This was not done under cover of darkness or behind a screen of secrecy; it was carried out shamelessly before the eyes of international diplomats and local and foreign observers. The second attempt was an attempt to arbitrarily invalidate votes already considered valid at the polling station and during the recount exercise.
The Guyanese people eagerly observe what is going to happen to those who were involved in these actions. There can be no sympathy or compassion for those involved in such electoral malpractice and the aches and pains that the public have had to endure for five months while all this interference and puddling has election results are happening.
The forces of democracy should not leave any stone unturned in ensuring that justice is given to those guilty of electoral fraud. They should also strongly lobby for the Biden / Harris administration in the United States to extend indefinitely the travel restrictions imposed on some officials.
The APNU + AFC were the ones who would have benefited if the attempt to rig the elections had been successful. The APNU + AFC did nothing to disassociate itself from the electoral fraud, which was committed. In fact, he devised a narrative, which lent credit to that attempt. In some jurisdictions, calls for the permanent passing of laws would have barred these parties from being involved in the democratic process ever again.
The APNU + AFC Plan had Plan B. This plan B was scheduled from the moment the issue of the appointment of the GECOM Chairman arose after the 2015 elections. The APNU + AFC wanted someone he could rely on.
This plan was further refined after legal action and pussyfooting neutralized the no confidence motion, which was passed in the National Assembly in December 2018. Plan B was implemented the moment the poll statements showed that the PPP / C had won the The 2020 elections.
The APNU + AFC believed it could survive protests. He believed that if he liked what was done in Zimbabwe – where there was once a unity government – he could remain in power.
The APNU + AFC Alliance lived in another stratosphere. He stuck in the past, believing he could take power on the basis of flawed results.
APNU + AFC miscalculated the international community’s resolve. This is why when the US State Department announced travel sanctions; some people immediately lost their appetite during a birthday celebration.
APNU + AFC assumed it could return to certain condolences to have Caricom report on the recount that would give the Coalition government the bullets to discredit the elections. He assumed wrong because the Caricom report presented the coup-de-grâce. He accused the Coalition of going on a fishing expedition during the recount.
But the attempt to rig the elections could not have happened unless participants believed the Guyana Election Commission would have gone along with corrupt results. Things didn’t work out as planned.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper.)