The Forward Guyana Movement notes the September 4 press release issued by the Guyana Elections Commission. What is most striking is not what GECOM has said, but what it has refused to say. Instead of addressing the video evidence of ballot boxes being improperly handled, GECOM has chosen to attack the individual who filmed it. This is gaslighting of the highest order. It is the kind of conduct that seeks to make Guyanese people believe that they did not see what they saw. It is insulting. It is debasing. It is an offense to the intelligence of right-thinking Guyanese.
The Forward Guyana Movement also notes with grave concern the September 4 statement issued by the Guyana Police Force on the matter of recount integrity and false information. What makes this statement especially troubling is that it was issued after video evidence surfaced showing what appears to be ballot boxes being emptied from a container and seals that appear to have been tampered with. Rather than announcing an immediate investigation into this disturbing footage, the Police Force chose instead to issue a public denial and condemnation of those raising questions.
Notwithstanding the circumstances under which the video was obtained, it cannot and must not be ignored. The inviolability of ballot boxes is the cornerstone of free and fair elections, and with it rests the sacred right of every citizen to have their vote counted and protected. When a ballot box is tampered with, it is not only the box that is violated, it is the will of the people that is violated. It is the voice of the voter that is silenced.
The Guyana Elections Commission has a solemn duty to safeguard that will. To remain silent in the face of evidence suggesting interference with ballot boxes is to abandon that duty and to weaken the very process it is sworn to uphold. The right to vote is meaningless if the system that protects and counts those votes is compromised. Any tampering of ballot boxes is a direct assault on the rights of the people of Guyana and on the principle of equal representation.
Those who would excuse or justify this type of conduct because it benefits them or because they have emerged as victors through such misconduct must understand that they are the problem. This selective approach to principle, where what we stand for depends on where we sit, is what has kept Guyana backward and divided. In Jamaica, within thirty six hours of the polls closing, the results were declared and the process moved forward in an orderly and credible way. Here in Guyana, we remain entangled in doubt, dispute, and denial, not because our people are incapable, but because those in authority choose convenience over principle. Principles cannot be convenient. They must be consistent, especially where the right to vote is concerned.
The evidence of tampered ballot boxes cannot be explained away. It cannot be ignored. To pretend otherwise is not maturity, it is evasion, and it robs the Guyanese people of their right to a credible electoral process.
The Forward Guyana Movement therefore calls upon the Guyana Elections Commission, in the first instance, and the Guyana Police Force, to treat this matter with the seriousness it demands. The Guyanese people and the international observer groups still present in Guyana must note not only the content of the video itself, but the manner in which these reports are being addressed. Transparency, accountability and decisive investigation, not silence and dismissal, are what will safeguard trust in this electoral process.
