On the evening of Feb 28, 2024, I paid rapt attention to the Globespan programme: ‘Rigged Elections and Democracy.’ In his rapping up comments, Ravi Devi opined that himself and Baytoram Ramharak were speaking one truth, while David Hinds and Roysdale Forde were speaking a different truth.
The different truths are related to the Mingo spreadsheet declarations; and the alleged instances of voter impersonation, respectively.
Truths may be relative, but facts are irrefutable.
Critical facts of the 2020 elections are: Mingo was accused of making false declarations. As a result there was a recount; and Mingo and others were charged for electoral fraud. The recount led to the documentation of hundreds of claims of votes being cast for persons who did not present themselves to vote. GECOM has the relevant documented claims. A small percentage were sent to Immigration Department for verification.
In one instance, 172 persons out of 207 of the persons voted for were verified as not being in the country. In another instance, 211 out of 310 were verified as not being in the country. The additional hundreds were not sent for verification. However, they were handed over to the Attorney-General, who has apparently placed them in cold storage.
Action was taken to address the accusation leveled against Mingo but no action has been taken to address the alleged documented cases of impersonation and the verified cases. Additionally, the verified cases were never brought to the attention of the CARICOM observers, hence in their report they stated that they had no knowledge of any such situation.
It should also be noted that the documentation required for the authentication of over 14,000 ballots/votes on the East Coast of Demerara could not be located but those votes were treated as valid votes, although a by-election was proposed to ensure the voters were not denied their right, while at the same time ensuring that no invalid vote was validated.
It is against this background that Forde`s commentary, on the manner in which some issues were addressed to the benefit of the PPP/C, and others of equal magnitude have not been addressed, even post elections, as a basis for identifying and correcting weaknesses in the system, cannot be faulted. Notably, GECOM by a majority vote (the PPP appointed Commissioners and the Chairperson) refused to evaluate the conduct of the 2020 elections.
For anyone to admonish and flay Mr. Forde for questioning GECOM`s rectitude in the conduct of the elections; and the declared results as a true reflection of the will of the Guyanese people, he or she is, at best, complicit in the cover up of the malfeasance that afflicted the 2020 elections.
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Vincent Alexander is the Opposition-nominated Commissioner on the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM)
