The last five months leading up to the declaration of the elections results have tested both the patience and the grit of the Guyanese people, and in a strange way, have united our people in ways that could not have been imagined before. Efforts by the PNC to marginalise and divide our people through lies and misinformation had backfired, giving the PPP/C more goodwill and the mandate to deliver upon our manifesto commitment. I feel proud and encouraged that in the end, so many PNC/APNU supporters ignored the many inciting and divisive statements made by Rickford Burke, Mark Benschop, Joseph Harmon, James Bond, Volda Lawrence and others, and stayed away from protest actions and violence in support of our democracy, our constitution, and the rule of law. We will also be forever grateful to the International community and to CARICOM for their unwavering support in combating this evil regime.
Not since the second world war had so many leaders of the free world rise up in unison against a dictator and were able to save Guyana from anarchy.
With the exception of a few gullible supporters who remained loyal to the end, it was an embarrassing experience for the others to have witness the leaders they once respected, reduced themselves to common criminals who had perfected the uncanny ability to shamelessly lie to the world with a straight face.
Throughout these elections ordeal, many questioned the leadership and integrity of a man they once admired — David Granger. Was he in charge of his government? Was he muzzled by a few PNC hardliners who were willing to risk the threat and the wrath of sanctions to remain in power? Or was he the grandmaster hiding behind the scene, who was willing to sacrifice a few pawns to gain strategic advantage in the crucial battle for ultimate power. No one knew for sure until the Court of Appeal drove the final nail in the coffin of the Coalition with the unanimous decision by the Judges who dismissed the case filed by Misenga Jones which tried to invalidate the national elections recount.
By then, the only option left available was one that the PNC dare not take.
Going back to the CCJ would have been disastrous and too embarrassing even for the eccentric Basil Williams.
So, five months after Guyanese went to the polls, Granger finally gave up after sanctions were unleashed on himself and the rigging cabal by the US State Department. Now he’s claiming that the PNC acted responsibly at all times during the elections process. This man must be delusional. He even warned against any witch-hunting by the newly elected PPP/C government.
According to a Kaieteur News article (August 8, 2020), “The former President has condemned what he determines to be an atmosphere of loathing and fear being facilitated by the new PPP/C government, through its move to quickly evict former ministers from government housing. There have also been reports of public servants being locked out of their offices and/or being asked to resign. Granger said the PPP/C should not pursue any dangerous pattern of aggression and that it will bear responsibility for the consequences of its conduct.”
Editor, the late Malcolm X, a courageous advocate for the rights of Black Americans, once said, “I have more respect for a man who lets me know where he stands, even if he’s wrong, than the one who comes up like an angel and is nothing but a devil.”
David Granger is in no position, nor has he any credibility to threaten the People’s Progressive Party. The arrogance he now publicly displays proves that he was indeed the mastermind behind Mingo’s rigging attempts and Lowenfields manipulation of the ‘valid’ votes. He lied when he stated he had never seen his party’s SOPs. Would anyone have believed Jagdeo if he had said the same? I doubt it! David Granger was the President, the leader of his party and the head of the APNU+AFC List of Candidates. He knew he had lost the elections since the polls closed on March 2. Why do you think to date, despite tremendous pressure for him to do so, he has not made public the APNU+AFC copy of the Statements of Polls (SOPs) in his possession? He can’t do so because you would see they are exact copies of those published by the PPP/C, and that would have exposed his wicked intention to rig; something I’m sure he’s quite familiar with.
Over the years, I had repeatedly demanded that David Granger account for his role in the 1973 rigged elections which gave the PNC a two-third majority in Parliament. To date, he has never fully explained his involvement in the seizure of ballot boxes by the GDF, although he was at the time a political liaison officer to Forbes Burnham. Surely, in his capacity as a senior officer in the army, he would have known and may have facilitated the PNC’s plan to rig that election. After all, Burnham would have relied on Granger’s support and authority to subvert the army.
According to leaked confidential diplomatic cables sent on July 19, 1973 by the US Embassy in Georgetown to US Missions in Trinidad, Barbados and Jamaica, the US expressed amazement at the level of bare-faced, blatant rigging that took place during the 1973 General Election. It read in part, “In attempting its forecast of this election (Ref A), Embassy had not really expected PNC to abandon all pretense of honest election. In event, however, this is what appears to have happened. Whether out of fear, confusion, inefficiency, exuberance or sheer lack of coordination, rigging does seem to have gotten out of hand.”
“From all reports, ballot boxes were delivered by a variety of means Monday night to Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Headquarters in Georgetown where they remained under armed guard for upwards of 10 hours before vote counting began. PPP evidently succeeded only too well in alarming PNC by its last minute exhortations to its followers to prevent removal of ballot boxes to three central counting locations. (Evidently), plans to engage in ballot-box stuffing and switching while boxes being delivered, as had apparently been the original intention, were abandoned and stuffing and switching seems to have taken place while the boxes (were) held at GDF Headquarters before delivery to three counting locations.” Two unarmed PPP supporters were shot and killed that day by the Guyana Defence Force.
Granger later defended the killings by his GDF squaddies in a March 18, 2011 article in the Guyana Chronicle captioned, “Granger endorsed the soldiers’ actions on elections day 1973”. This article prompted the following response from the Chronicle: “How can shooting and then allowing two men to bleed to death simply because they demanded that the ballots be counted at the place of polls rather than taken away by the GDF be endorsed as “splendid” and “discretionary” behaviour?
It is ironic that on June 27, 1974, a US diplomatic cable on the Guyana National Service described the then GDF Major David Granger as having the reputation of being an ideologue and “anti-East Indian racist.”
After David Granger was sworn-in as President in May 2015, all PPP/C former ministers and political appointees walked. They didn’t have to be told to leave office or vacate the government properties they occupied. Like ambassadors, all political appointees serve at the pleasure of the President. When the President gets kicked out of office, the decent thing for those political appointees to do is to resign.
In 2015, thousands of government employees perceived to be PPP supporters were fired in a massive witch-hunt by the newly elected administration. Granger was severely criticized and ridiculed for this vindictive act. So to make the PPP/C look bad this time around, instructions were given to the APNU+AFC political appointees not to resign as they are required to do, but to remain in office so that the PNC can claim victimization and witch-hunting when the services of those political appointees are finally terminated by the new PPP/C administration. Sadly, this was not the only provocative action taken. Although they knew they had lost the elections, the illegal cabal renewed the contracts for some of the most controversial and politically active employees, setting the stage for direct confrontation with the new administration. The former Director of Sports, Christopher Jones, had his contract renewed on March 31, several weeks after the elections. Instead of doing the work he was paid $497,000 + benefits to do, he spent the entire duration of the recount, co-hosting the ‘Lampy and Pampy Show’ with Sherod Duncan, spewing lies and propaganda and cussing down the PPP/C. Months earlier, Sherod Duncan had been fired as General Manager of the Guyana Chronicle after he failed to account for $5 million he had allegedly taken from that entity, and then later re-employed. They were both fired. Even Joseph Harmon, Carol Smith-Joseph, Ovid Morrison, Geeta Chandan-Edmon, Ronald Backer, and Imran Khan had not resigned and had to be fired. Was this witch-hunting? Or were these dismissals justified, you decide!
Also, a number of political appointees were reluctant to give up the government residences they lived in. These include Imran Khan and Ganesh Mahipaul; both earned massive salaries as public officials while campaigning for the PNC.
Then they were former APNU+AFC ministers, Valerie Patterson-Yearwood; Khemraj Rajkumar, and Dr. Karen Cummings, who had to be given notices of eviction five months after they all knew they had lost the elections.
But to best illustrate the mindset of the PNC, we have to examine the notorious Simona Broomes, who is in the habit of embarrassing herself.
The former minister Broomes rented a mansion from my friend and colleague, Peter Ramsaroop for the negotiated price of $800,000 monthly. When this was leaked to the press, the contract amount was reduced to $500,000. After a public outcry, she vacated that mansion and rented another house that she still lives in. After the PPP/C was sworn in to government, Broomes was asked to give up the rented property to allow a PPP/C minister to move in as she was no longer a minister of government. To our surprise, Broomes advised the Parliament that all they needed to do was to stop the monthly payment of $500,000 as the house she is living in is in fact her own property. This is appalling and downright dishonest. But it illustrates just how unscrupulous some members of the former administration are, even those who portray themselves as ‘God-fearing’ and sanctimonious.
Yours sincerely
HARRY GILL
