When we allow Reason and Rationality to Abandon us, the next steps could be Disaster
I must admit that I don’t get perplexed easily. However, an article written by Dr David Hinds sent me reeling and wondering whether I have been cast into another segment of the stratosphere. I couldn’t believe that “calling to scrap the March 2, 2020 polls” will flow from a man who is supposedly an intellectual and whose scholarly foundation is based on reason, fairness, principle and logic. I recognize that Guyana has been hurled into a situation where no one knows for now what path to pursue. There is a dark cloud of pessimism, uneasiness, and resignation that pervades the country.
Why should Guyana scrap the 2020 general and regional and elections, when almost everyone including all the observer teams showered praises upon GECOM for conducting perhaps the best run polling day event for the past decades? And contrary to Dr Hinds’ alarm, there is no “trouble in the boxes.” This is a concoction of his imagination. I hope that this is not another narrative to shift focus away from the corrupt tabulation process for Region 4!
If the Region 4 Returning Officer (RO), Mr Clairmont Mingo, had continued to exercise the proper method of tabulation (using the verified and signed SPOs), as was effectively done by the ROs for the 9 other regions, the results would have been untainted (valid) and an official declaration could have been made since March 4, 2020. Dr Hinds and all his party members knew since March 3, 2020 that the PNCR-led coalition party had lost the elections and that their major competitor, the PPPC, has won the elections with a majority of votes. They shouldn’t pretend that they didn’t know. Neither should they continue to give false hope to their supporters that they won the elections.
Dr Hinds is smart enough to know that if the PNCR had won the elections (as his party had claimed), they would have moved since March 4, 2020 to install Mr David Granger as the President and a new government would have been established to guide the country out of its severe distress and uncertainty.Everyone, including PNCRites knew about the calculated shenanigans (e.g., Clairmont Mingo taken out on a stretcher only to return shortly afterwards; and then a bomb scare allegedly to facilitate the tampering of the verified and signed SOPs) that were deployed by GECOM and Mingo to discard the SOPs figures and fabricate instead figures with a view to stealing the 2020 elections from the PPPC.
Having conducted the tabulation the correct way for 421 polling stations in region 4, Mingo took a u-turn and decided instead to read out figures from a mysterious pre-filled spreadsheet. How could any reasonable person not conclude that GECOM’s and Mingo’s attempts actually amounted to a coup d’etat which was perpetrated in the full view of the world?
It seems that every time Dr Hinds write, he shifts the goal post to align it with his thinking. At one time he expresses support for the recount and added the provisio of some kind of shared governance. Now, he has embraced a radical position: scrap the elections! Political platitudes could never solve problems. Getting to the truth will.And the truth is; PPPC has won the 2020 elections. The PPPC describes themselves as the government in waiting.
On another issue, I note that GECOM has an existing budget of over $(G) 8 billion (or US $40 M) to conduct the 2020 elections, which the Chair boasted had been free and fair. until Mingo rattled the conscience of Guyanese and the world with his calculated deception. Having had an excellent day of polling on March 2nd, why then did GECOM allow PNCR operatives to sabotage the final process of votes’ tabulation for region 4? Why did they allow that ‘high’ to plunge to a ‘low’? This was a wanton display of criminal behavior which was rightly called out by Cathy Hughes’ mother who described the proceedings as “thievery.” And Mr David Granger’s son-in-law, Mr D Gaskin, also questioned the credibility of the Region 4 tabulation process.
And unbelievably, Dr Hinds is strongly advocating the conduct of fresh elections! For what purpose? To allow the conspirators to perpetrate a less clumsy tabulation fraud? Even if there is structural reorganization of GECOM, that would not necessarily lead to a clean transparent process. There has to be a simultaneous purge of the evil doers. But this is an issue that is not relevant now. If the March 2, 2020 elections were free and fair, with only the region 4 tabulation process corrupted, the immediate task will be for GECOM to remedy the situation. This could be easily done.
And assuming that fresh elections are held, from where or which budget line would an additional $(G) 8 billion come? Available financial data suggest that Guyana is fast approaching bankruptcy.
Even if we tolerate for a few moments Dr Hinds “proposal” to have an interim government, why would this condition be deemed necessary? And more troubling, why should an intermin government be headed by Mr David Granger? Dr Irfaan Ali got more votes than Mr Granger at the March 2nd elections. Moreover, Granger should gracefully take his exit. His government has brought the country into social and economic chaos.
I will address, at another forum, Dr Hinds’ rant about African marginalization and his attempt to cast the blame onto the PPPC. Suffice to ask: between 1964 and 1992, who or which party caused Africans to become marginalized? For most of this period, the PNC had owned and controlled 80% of the country’s economy. Why didn’t the PNC eliminate African marginalization?
From 2015 and 2020, could Dr Hinds say what has the PNCR government done to eliminate Africans’ marginalization? Only a small group of power elites with friends have benefitted from Dr Hinds’ coalition party. The poverty rate among Indians and Africans is at the same level of 31%, while the most marginalized group in Guyana, Amerindians, have an astronomical rate of over 70%.
About election results consequent upon a recount, all the political parties, except the Coalition, say that they will accept the results once the process is free, fair and transparent. Finally, why does Dr Hinds have this pre-occupation with so many footnotes?