by Randy GoPaul
Let us cut through the dense fog of legalese and state media propaganda currently emanating from the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court. The People’s Progressive Party (PPP), through its surrogate state apparatus, is currently engaged in an ugly, egregious, and unprecedented abuse of power. They are attempting to criminalize a signature in a desperate bid to rewrite history, distract the populace, and exact political revenge.
Has it escaped even the most limited thinking of persons that there is no witness to anyone rigging elections? Consequently, I find it baffling that the populace, through the state media, is making a monumental case about Volda Lawrence’s signature.
The prosecution’s latest theatrics involve immigration officers and handwriting experts attempting to link signatures on passport applications to a disputed March 5 Form 24 declaration. Let us be abundantly clear about what this means: they are spending valuable court time and taxpayer money to prove that a piece of ink on a document belongs to Ms. Lawrence.
But Ms. Lawrence is not the only one in the dock. Look at the broader picture of this travesty. We are witnessing a systematic campaign against all the accused Black middle-class members of society who have been crippled for years, dragged through the mud, and effectively barred from earning a living. These are professionals, public servants, and technocrats whose lives have been put on hold by the heavy, vindictive boot of the state. While they languish in legal limbo, their reputations are shredded and their livelihoods destroyed, all to satisfy the political ego of a regime that cannot tolerate dissent.
It is incomprehensible to me that even the most non-critical thinker struggles with this fundamental notion: signature or not, the case must be made that these individuals were complicit in rigging. Where was that proven? Where is the smoking gun? Where is the witness who saw them execute a fraud?
A signature on a Form 24 is a procedural reality of the electoral process. It is not, in and of itself, evidence of a crime. If signing a disputed declaration was suddenly a criminal offense, half the political operatives in this country would be behind bars. To stretch a handwriting comparison into a full-blown criminal trial is a stunning display of prosecutorial overreach. It is a glaring admission that they have no actual case, only a narrative.
This is an ugly, egregious case of political persecution. It is the weaponization of the judiciary against political opponents. It is shameful that the PNC has not shut down the country in support of their members. The PNC is hemorrhaging members, not only because many with talent are deliberately pushed out, but because the party leaders simply do not launch any extended resistance. They do not fight back with the ferocity required to earn the trust of the people or the respect of the PPP. The opposition’s silence in the face of such blatant judicial harassment is deafening, and it signals a profound failure of leadership at all levels.
When a government feels emboldened enough to drag Black professionals through the mud, (much the way they dragged the three MV Marina accused), over procedural signatures without a shred of eyewitness proof of a crime, it is a clear signal that the rule of law has been replaced by the rule of the mob. This should not be allowed to stand.
It is no coincidence that the alleged leader during the worst murders in Guyana’s history, Bharrat Jagdeo, could trick the masses with a message of unity during Corbin’s funeral, and then, just two days later, push the ugly propaganda of election rigging. This is a well-oiled machine of manipulation. The PPP knows exactly what it is doing. They are using the courts not to seek justice, but to keep the country perpetually divided, to settle old scores, and to ensure that their political rivals are forever bogged down in legal quicksand.
The prosecution is chasing ghosts with passport records and handwriting experts while the real issues facing Guyanese crime, the cost of living, and economic decay—are ignored.
Enough is enough. The state’s pursuit of these individuals over a signature, absent any concrete proof of a rigging conspiracy, is a grotesque farce. Shame on a system that destroys the lives of Guyanese citizens for political sport. And shame on an opposition that refuses to offer the kind of sustained, unyielding resistance that the people of Guyana actually deserve. Until they do, the PPP will continue to laugh all the way to the courthouse.
