Former US consular officer calls on US to impose personal sanctions on Granger, Nagamootoo
Trinidad-based Guyanese Attorney-at-Law and former US consular officer Randy Depoo has created an online petition seeking the intervention of the United States of America in the restoration of democracy in Guyana following the blatant attempts at rigging the March 2, General and Regional Elections by the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) coalition.
Depoo addressed his petition to Secretary of State Pompeo and called for personal sanctions to be imposed on caretaker President David Granger, former Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency Joseph Harmon, caretaker Ministers – Volda Lawrence, Basil Williams, Amna Ally, Khemraj Ramjattan, along with Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield and his Deputy Roxanne Meyers, Returning Officer for Electoral District Four Clairmont Mingo, Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission Retired Justice Claudette Singh, and coalition financier Brian Tiwarie.
“As you are aware, Guyana held elections on March 2, 2020. These elections were monitored by the resident diplomatic missions of the European Union, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and Canada. They were also monitored by observer missions from the European Union, the Commonwealth, the OAS, the Carter Center and a host of domestic observer groups,” he wrote in the petition to Pompeo.
“They all concluded that the elections were fair, but the incumbent APNU/AFC [coalition] has colluded with corrupt elements of the ostensibly independent Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to rig the elections by manipulating the results. The Commonwealth, OAS observer teams and a Caricom high-level delegation have declared that there is a deliberate attempt to declare the coalition the winner of the election using fraudulent results,” the petition stated.
He reminded that the Commonwealth Secretary General, Patricia Scotland, has expressed her concern that if flaws in the counting process are not addressed immediately, this would result in a “serious violation of the fundamental political values of the Commonwealth.” In addition, the Immigration Attorney stated that the Organisation of American States (OAS) Observer Mission, which withdrew from observing the counting of the votes, noted that the process “does not meet the required standard of fairness and transparency.”
In cementing his argument, Depoo related that the current Caricom Chairman and Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, who led a five-member Prime Ministerial delegation to Guyana stated that “it is clear that there are forces that do not want to see the votes recounted for whatever reason. Any Government which is sworn in without a credible and fully transparent vote count process would lack legitimacy.”
“France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Norway have also condemned the fairness of the counting process. The right of the Guyanese people to choose their Government is being trampled upon in violation of Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Commonwealth Charter, the Charter of the Organisation of American States, and the Constitution of the Republic of Guyana. Democracy is under siege in Guyana. We are galloping towards a totalitarian state. In light of the universal condemnation of the electoral process, we humbly implore you to use your good offices to immediately impose sanctions on the above-named individuals to help preserve democracy in Guyana,” Depoo argued.
GUYANA TIMES.
