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Caricom Being Defied in Guyana

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Under the current disturbing circumstances in Guyana, which led to an urgent visit there by five Caricom Prime Ministers, headed by Chair Mia Mottley of Barbados, and included Dr. Keith Rowley, democracy is being defied. Caricom’s advise to have a proper count of the ballots is defied. The electoral commission, charged with ensuring a free and fair elections, is not listening. A free and fair election was held but the count is fraudulent.

The edifice of democracy, which began construction in 1992 after almost three decades of dictatorship, seems to be in danger. The trust of a transparent electoral process, so key to the foundations of a democracy, seems lost after free and fair elections were held on March 2. PM Mia Mottley appealed for a transparent process and the rule of law. But they are being ignored.

So many (from the elections commission) have been culprits in hijacking the electoral and democratic process; they have been engaged in immoral, unethical and illegal activities. The conduct and behavior of some individuals, in particular, the Chair and CEO of the elections commission (Gecom), who should be a paragons of virtue and defenders of democracy, have brought utter shock to the population, diplomats, observers, and media including Trinis who came to report on the elections. Words cannot describe the conduct of some Gecom personnel. Are their alleged illegal actions deliberate? Are they complicit in any plan or conspiracy to derail the electoral process? Are they biased towards one party?

vishnu-bisram
Photo : Dr. Vishnu Bisram

The entire electoral process and the behavior of key individuals of Gecom, not least being the Chair, CEO, Deputy CEO, Public Relations Officer, Region 4 Returning Officer, among others, merit full investigation and enquiry, so that persons responsible for attempts at derailing the democratic electoral process are exposed and punished. The conduct of Gecom’s staff raises questions about Guyana’s constitutional propriety, electoral procedure, and transparency. All of these would have to be addressed by the legislature whenever a winner a declared. Would the right winner be declared? It does not seem so.

Regardless of which party one supports in Guyana, freedom fighters and lovers of democracy (those who fought for constitutional rule) of the 1960s thru 1992 must not leave any stone unturned to ensure the triumph of the ballot over bullet and of democracy, to support the transparency of the electoral process, and to uphold constitutional governance, and the values enshrined therein as well as in the Election laws of the country. Supporting a particular party should not be used as a justification to close one’s eyes to electoral fraud or to condone electoral skullduggery. The entire Guyanese nation must come together to foil any attempt by Gecom to perpetrate electoral fraud on the nation. The entire Caribbean region must support the people of Guyana in their demands for the law to take its course and every Statements of Poll (SOPs) be verified as in the possession of every party agent.

An attempt was made to declare fraudulent results last Thursday.There is a dispute over the count in Region 4 (of ten regions). The Guyana court ruled on Wednesday how verification of Region 4 count should take place. Statements of polls (SOPs) as obtained on election day March 2, a copy of which from each polling station was displayed publicly and of which every party was entitled, must be used to verify (ascertain) the count and from which the outcome would be declared. Anything short of that requirement would be defying the court’s order and defrauding the voters of their will (which party they wish to govern them). In addition, any other process would be a violation of the election law that clearly states that SOPs must be used to ascertain counts and to declare a winner.

There are credible allegations that Gecom personnel defied the court’s order. There was sheer mockery of the rule of law (defying orders enunciated by the Chief Justice) on Thursday as there were of the electoral process a week earlier. The court, its Marshalls, and the police must be used to execute the orders of the court to ascertain the vote count using SOPs. Since Gecom is in default of carrying out the orders of the court, then it is advised that the court supervise the verification of the Region 4 ballots. This is the only way to save democracy in Guyana.

Yours truly,

Dr. Vishnu Bisram* (*The writer played a significant role in the struggle for restoration of democracy in Guyana)

FM

Turn the volume up on your speakers and pay keen attention to these three stooges ..# they dek Pon*****.

Look at this video carefully from Saturday afternoon of the 3 PNC commissioners caught in an unguarded moment when they found out that David Granger requested CARICOM to supervise the re-count. Looking lost and frustrated … trying to figure out new schemes to rig. #antidemocraticdiseases

FM

Leslie Ramsammy

Two days after the recount should have begun GECOM still delaying. Now it looks another day is gone. What next? Why are they do mortally afraid?
Given the present assault on democracy in Guyana, in the full view of local and international observers, in the first instance, we will be pursuing sanctions against the following individuals (and their families) who are part of the plot or complicit in rigging the March 2, 2020 elections in Guyana:


APNU/AFC
David Granger
Volda Lawrence
Khemraj Ramjattan
Joseph Harmon
Winston Felix
Kathy Hughes
Basil Williams
James Bond
Mark Kirton
Rowen Wilabus
Karen Cummings
Commissioner of Police and his two Deputies
GECOM
Roxanne Myers
Keith Lowenfield
Duarte Hetsberger
Clairmont Mingo
Joseph Eastman

Private Sector and Media
Brian Tiwari
Llyod Singh
Gordon Mosely
Enrico Woolford


Should David Granger defy the law and defy everyone (including the ABCE countries) who have asked that GECOM conduct the tabulation of votes in the prescribed way and have himself sworn in as President, we will additionally pursue sanctions on all those who are sworn in as Members of Parliament and the illegal Cabinet.

FM

Peoples Progressive Party/Civic

19 mins Β· 

GECOM is currently moving the containers with ballots from Region 3. These containers are being taken to the ACCC. Only two of the Region 4 containers which were taken to the GECOM Kingston Office this morning have been moved.
This is consistent with our belief that they don't want to count the Region 4 ballots first as agreed on by the CARICOM delegation.
The GECOM Chair had also given an undertaking to the Chief Justice that the Region 4 ballots will be counted.
Granger's prevarication and constant excuses seems designed to allow his minions to act contrary to what was agreed on.

FM

Anthony Vieira

I am not a member of either of the two major race groups in this country, my support for this or that party is based on what I THINK about their ability to rule my country with my brain and not my blood, I have no animosity against my afro Guyanese or my indo Guyanese brothers and sisters. I am therefore free to decide based on my interpretation of their performance.
First let me say that in 2015 I supported the APNU and therefore I supported David Granger to be President.
Since that time to now, I was completely disenchanted with the performance of the very government which I supported and campaigned to put in power.
Mr. Granger is not the President of the afro Guyanese population, he is the president of all of the people of all races in this country, so this is our executive president all of us, and since I helped to put him there I have every right to question his ability to perform the enormous task he has asked me to support him to take.
Last year I saw firsthand the enormous blunders which were made when we negotiated to exploit our oil with EXXON, not one aspect of it was handled well. And in the midst of all of this Mr. Granger was at the age of 74 diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, this is the worse type of lymphoma, you have no idea what that man has gone through, we were kept mostly in the dark as to his exact condition but as sick as he was, he neglected his job, because by his own admission we have Jan Mangal telling us that as the presidential adviser on oil, appointed by the IDB to help Guyana, he discovered that Trotman had signed agreements with EXXON one year before and the Executive President was not aware of it. This was the most important matter in his entire period of being my executive President and he was not in the picture and Trotman was allowed to run amok and deprive us all of participating beneficially in our own oil.
Last year my friend Brian Stratie Nobrega who finally died was undergoing radiation and chemotherapy for bone cancer. His hair fell out, his teeth fell out, he threw up dozens of times per day, he lost 70 pounds and was completely incapacitated, and disoriented, so I have some concept of what Mr. Granger has gone through and I see where we managed to make thousands of executive mistakes in that time. The health of my president is therefore important to me and I have a legitimate expectation that he will be operating at peak performance at all times.
In 11 commentaries, I recorded for this election I did not make Mr. Granger’s health an issue, but it did bother me. I don’t think it is unthinkable for any voter to question an Executive President’s ability to be in charge of their country at all times. But we did not make it an election issue, since we are still at heart, decent people. But it was a legitimate concern to me. He is seeking reelection for another 5 years and no one knows if the additional stress of such a massive responsibility, would allow him to complete a second term. So we have a legitimate reason to ask, if something happened to him who exactly will be our President. We must ask it because it is a real possibility that the question will come up sooner rather than later.
We held an election on the 2nd of March 2020. By the 3rd of March we knew that something was wrong at GECOM district 4 counting location. By the 5th I knew that the entire system had been hijacked by a person or persons who had no legal right to interfere with the process in that manner. They threatened the international observers, they threatened the returning officer, they threatened the Media workers, they threatened the political observers, but it took 11 days for the Executive President to act! We must remember that the Executive President appointed 4 of the 7 members of the GECOM commission, and so has a right to at least ask them what is going on. However as late as it was on the 12th March, after cavalcades of vehicles were going around the country waving flags and blowing their car horns declaring an APNU win, he then declared that he was going to ask CARICOM to supervise a recount of all of the votes cast in the election, and he delivered at last an address to the nation announcing his decision in the afternoon of the 15th March.
Eric Philips has made it his business to attack me for my private communications to a friend regarding Mr. Granger’s health. Well even though late Mr. Granger has finally acted in the best interest of his country, so that part of the issue is settled, by his actions Mr. Granger is saying that he had nothing to do with what went wrong, but something went horribly wrong in this election and now that Mr. Granger has acted, one can only deduce that elements within Mr. Granger’s own administration wanted to hijack this election since they were unprepared to yield power, so when at 2 or 3 AM in the region 4 counting office on March 3rd it became clear who the real winners of the election were, all hell broke loose.
The picture below shows Mr Eric Phillips and Mr. Harmon entertaining in the OP a high-ranking representative of InterOil owned by the now notorious Perrucci. This picture according to sources was published in the Guyana chronicle of the 28th Novenmner 2019 but is not today visible in the online version of the paper. this photograph was removed, I dont understand why, can Eric Phillips explain it?
The evidence we have is that these people were setting up to reap benefits from this oil for themselves and not for the people of this country. Mr. Harmon’s son had set up numerous off shore companies since 2019 to capitalize on this oil find, I questioned whether his father being the next in line to Mr. Granger should not see these actions as a conflict of interest, because I did see it as a gross conflict, my commentary explores how much this group invested, whilst Trotman was giving away our patrimony, no one was paying attention, they were setting up to fix themselves up, and not the people of Guyana.
This attempt to hijack this election is being supported by people who it is my opinion do not understand that they are supporting people who are seeking to benefit personally from this oil and in the long run they will be denied any real wealth as a nation. I honestly believe this, and so I cannot support it.

FM

Good Afternoon Friends

Dear #Citizens

#DictatorGranger in Crisis Meeting currently with some officials of APNUAFC at State House...

Inside sources have indicated that #Trottie #Joeshanlin and a wealthy contractor BT are fighting to stall the RECOUNT because they are worried about the potential fall-out after they collected hundreds of millions of dollars from some rogue investors...including some in the oil sector...

#FreeSpeech #PPPC_Is_Back

ONE LOVE!!!

FM

Latest update: 

there is a plot by Volda Lawrence to do something about the containers tonight. PPP is bringing out their supporters to keep a vigil... surrounding the convention centre. 
Let’s pray for these people. 

Where is Djanjo, these shameless prick. PPP is fighting to get a recount while your people are doing everything not to have a recount. 
Note: your mouth is in your Arss. 
But we will NOT give up. We are stronger. 

Long Live Democracy!

FM

Police threaten to arrest political party reps if they fail to leave site of national recount

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Police officers from the riot squad have threatened to arrest representatives of the various political parties and observers who are at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre where the national recount of votes from the March 2 polls is scheduled to take place.

The threat came after the party representatives and the observers were hesitant to adhere to the Police request to vacate the compound which now houses the containers with the ballot boxes.

As a matter of fact, PPP nominated GECOM Commissioner, Robeson Benn refused to leave the compound and actually laid on the ground in protest.

The management of the conference centre also turned off all the lights in the building.

 

Members of the Police Force at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre [Photo: Kingh Knight Sunil/Facebook]
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo and several Presidential Candidates for small political parties said their agents were instructed to leave after a team turned up to fumigate the building.

 

β€œMany of our leaders who have been there waiting for the recount to start are being asked to remove out of the compound, not out of the building but they’re in the yard of the massive compound of the convention centre,” Mr Jagdeo said at a press conference on Monday evening at Freedom House, Robb Street.

Presidential Candidate for The Citizenship Initiative, Rondha Lam who has been at the Centre since Monday midday when the recount was slated to begin, said the building was being fumigated for ants. This process she noted started in the evening.

 

Everyone was asked to leave the compound of the Arthur Chung Conference Centre [Photo: Neil Marks/News Room]
At 19:15hrs, she said in a Facebook post β€œriot police on the scene have requested everyone to leave the centre or they face the possibility of arrest.”

 

The building is expected to be closed until 09:00hrs on Tuesday but Jagdeo said the PPP will keep a vigil outside to ensure the sanctity of the ballot boxes.

Other party representatives have committed to remaining at the location all night to as well but after much back and forth a decision was made to allow one representative each from a political party inside the building.

FM

I implore all of you to understand the 48 Rules of Power and what it entails.

Please, carry on about "democracy". There is no such thing. Life has winners and losers. Key to survival in this thing called life is being on the winners side and learning how to defeat your enemies by their very own hands.

Checkmate, PPP/C. Carry on as you wish.  

Rochelle
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