Support Village Voice News With a Donation of Your Choice.
I began paying special attention to the United States’ (U.S) presidential election when the votes started coming in and President Donald Trump declared himself the winner, before all the votes were counted, or the media made the projection who would likely be the next president. Whereas some may have ascribed his premature announcement to his outsized personality, for me it was a man applying a strategy he attempted to perfect in Central and South America and thinking he would succeed. It is a crooked strategy of declaring winners Trump wants, not necessarily the electorate.
The declared election results last year in Bolivia saw the removal of left-leaning President Evo Morales on the alleged premise that he did not meet the numerical requirement to prevent a run-off and the votes he acquired were fraudulent. Fronting this allegation was local election officials and the observers of the Organisation of American States (OAS) who gave tactic support to the strategy. Morales was forced into exile to prevent Bolivia from descending into full scale war, as a right-leaning interim government was installed with U.S blessings.
The Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research commissioned a study by experts of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA into that election. The MIT findings cast doubt that the Bolivia election was fraudulent, concluding that it was “very likely” Morales met the numerical requirement to avoid a run-off. Not unexpectedly, the OAS dismissed the report. When a new election was held in October, Morales’ party was returned to office.
Two years ago, Venezuela shared a not too dissimilar experience. Trump refused to accept the election result that said the left-leaning Nicolás Maduro Government was returned to office, because he preferred the Opposition Leader Juan Guaidó. He not only hosted Guaidó in Washington and recognised him as the president, but the machinery he installed to make this a reality included an expectation that Guyana would play a role, interfering in the internal affairs of another nation, to remove its president. And he set about executing his strategy via our election.
This year’s election remains tainted for many reasons, but more importantly the failure of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), that presides over our electoral processes, in achieving a “final credible count” as per Order 60 of 2020. That Order committed to achieving this through a quantitative and qualitative process, but the latter was abandoned in the final stage and society told only the former can be implemented to make a declaration. As Americans are fighting for the votes to be counted before a winner could be declared, and which some pointedly refers to as “valid votes” or “legal votes,” the U.S was a leading voice in ensuring Guyanese did not have this experience.
Judicial, election and ggovernment officials were threatened that their U.S visa would be revoked if the raw recount numbers were not used to declare a winner. None of the leaders demonstrated the testicular fortitude of Pennsylvania (PA) Governor, Tom Wolf, as evident by his response to Trump who wanted to stop the counting of votes in that state. Not only did Wolf tell Trump there will be no interference in PA because it is a sovereign state, with its own electoral laws, but in no uncertain terms he stated- “Let me be clear: In Pennsylvania, every vote is going to count. I’m going to fight like hell to protect the vote of every Pennsylvanian.” This is the head of a state in the U.S, telling the head of the U.S where to get off when it comes to protecting the sanctity of the vote and the governing laws.
People have fought and died for the right to vote. Safeguarding ITS integrity is vital, for it represents our basic right to have our voices heard in electing our leaders/representatives. President David Granger failed to do for Guyana, a sovereign nation, what Wolf did for his state which is a part of amalgamated states comprising a nation. He abdicated Guyana’s sovereignty to Trump’s bullyism.
It is one thing respecting the electoral body doing its work free from interference, but another to stand by, in the face of glaring evidence, and allow a fundamental right to be transgressed and more so by foreign forces. This nation was led to believe GECOM, having found consensus in establishing an infrastructure (Order 60) after the initial count was disputed, would be able to deliver its duty of a “final credible count.” This should have happened.
Whereas the body presides over our election, the President presides over the nation. As Head of State and Head of Government his was the duty to take a firm stand in defence of the Constitution and Laws of Guyana. His was the duty to ensure none, local or foreign, forced this nation to accept partial implementation of any law when the whole was necessary to achieving what the electorate deserves. It was his duty to insist the Order be implemented in totality or cancel the election.
Thus, it is encouraging to hear the adamant stance of candidate Joe Biden that all the valid votes must be counted. His statement was in response to Trump who wanted to halt the count when his lead is diminishing and to continue the count when his lead is growing. For Trump, the election is fraudulent in the states where he is losing and credible when gaining. Biden’s announcement has been echoed by others on both sides of the political divide. Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader, and of Trump’s party tweeted, “Every legal vote must be counted. Any illegally submitted ballot must not.”
At the time of writing (Saturday morning) a projected winner has not been announced, but what is noted is Trump is being forced to recognise electoral democracy means all the votes have to be counted. Many are reminding him those votes have to be valid, they have to exist, and the ballot cast is consistent with each state’s electoral laws. He has been engaging the court in pursuit of his desire, which is his right to do, and ought to be respected.
But it must be pointed out while Trump, via Pompeo, was expressing intolerance with Guyanese utilising the judicial process, he is embracing it. The issue is not whether the challenges before the court have merit or not but the fact that his administration spoke out against supporters of the coalition utilising the court but remained silent when supporters and leaders of the PPP/C did.
I have also recognised despite Trump’s allegation of fraudulent votes that are purportedly working in favour of Biden, he fails to recognise that the burden is on the accuser (he) to provide the evidence. This is the ridiculousness of the man and the type of double standards he engages in. In our recount exercise there was evidence that brought into question the integrity of the vote based on our electoral laws, yet it was insisted we accept what the US and some locals wanted, regardless of.
Following the U.S’ election is a lesson for us. Not only does it expose the timidity of our leaders succumbing to forces, local and external, to compromise our sovereignty, electoral processes and arriving at a credible result; it suggests when the chips are down and self-interest threatens many are not prepared to put nation first. Where our leaders fail us, we cannot fail ourselves and must continue to stand and fight.
As those Americans are insisting on protecting and defending the integrity of their vote and their electoral system, we too must remain unwavering. Just as they are refusing to buckle to Trump’s shenanigans, we too must be imbued with that sense of patriotism to protect our vote. We too want valid votes counted and deserve no more no less. In that we were denied it does not mean we must stop fighting to achieve it.
