…want restricted travel, freeze of State and personal assets, safeguards for oil money
Representatives of six political parties last evening hosted a joint press engagement where they called on the international community to not recognise an “illegal” David Granger Administration—should he be sworn in—and for sanctions to be instituted.
The sanctions being called for are not against the country but rather individuals in the administration—sanctions such as the restriction of movement and the freezing and seizing of assets owned overseas and that revenues from Guyana’s oil reserve be held in a safe account until the country can resolve its current political brouhaha.
At the Sleep Inn International Hotel, the parties represented were the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP), The New Movement (TNM), the United Republican Party (URP), A New and United Guyana (ANUG) and Change Guyana (CG).
The charge was led by General Secretary of the PPP, Bharrat Jagdeo, who also extended a clarion call the Chancellor of the Judiciary and the Chief Justice “to not be a part of the shameful act of stealing an election”.
Jagdeo said too, “we have to call on people to take a stand”. According to the PPP General Secretary, every Guyanese should be mobilising and standing ready to fight for their rights.
He was adamant that “we live in a democratic system and there are rules” and that “there is a plot to steal the elections”.
The Opposition Leader accused the coalition of using personnel within the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to execute its plot to hijack the elections.
He was adamant that should Granger be sworn in on the basis of unverified results, he would be “illegal, not credible and would not be treated as such”.
Jagdeo was adamant that after the Returning Officer had purportedly made a declaration, none of the observers or other parties were aware of this development save for the coalition representatives.
That process of declaring the results, he said, was supposed to be done in presence of parties who would then sign onto the declaration.
According to Jagdeo, realising that something sinister was afoot, the Party opted to upload all the SOPs publicly and allow anyone to tabulate the results and was adamant that should GECOM comply with the laws .“There is no way Granger can be sworn in,”
Jagdeo said too. He has been in communication with several groups from the international community and there will be non-recognition of the government if Granger goes the route of being sworn in based on the unverified results.
Change Guyana’s Chairman, Nigel Hinds, in supporting the calls of the opposition PPP and its General Secretary, told media operatives that what exists currently in Guyana is a blatant disregard of the Constitution and that “we are now living in a state of lawlessness”.
He pointed to what observers and parties have called a nullified declaration by the Region Four Returning Officer (RO) who would have declared results for the region without first verifying the SOPs as is provided for the Representations of the Peoples Act.
Describing the actions of the incumbent coalition as an “abomination,” Hinds was adamant that the coalition government has brought the country to the brink of an emerging dictatorship and “we now have to go back to our colonizers and ask them for help”.
He was adamant that “we need sanctions, we need their money frozen, we need the oil money to be put in some special account where they have no access to it…..they need to take a strong stand against this abuse of the democratic system, against the abuse of the Guyanese people”.
The Change Guyana Chairman was adamant that the status quo could only see Guyana becoming an impoverished state worse than Haiti.
Presidential Candidate for the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP), Lennox Shuman, posited that President Granger had, in fact, telegraphed his position, when on the campaign trail, he announced that Region Four would be the final battleground.
Shuman posited that this illustrates that the President was aware of the plan afoot and questioned the coalition: “if you are so confident in your victory and you are confident in numbers presented to public, why not permit the process to run its course then. At the end of the day, we have results that can stand”.
Presidential Candidate of the PPP/C, Dr Irfaan Ali, speaking to recourse available in the meantime for the parties to explore in order to remedy the situation, disclosed that the Party had already begun initiating moves to have a full recount of Region Three—a process that is catered for under the laws.
The PPP/C would have up to noon today to file that request with the Returning Officer.
ANUG’s Timothy Jonas, in his contribution to the discourse in support of the international sanctions, said that this was the only efficient leverage available to the country.
He said the international community should be approached with a view that a Granger administration sworn in on the basis of unverified results should not be recognised and economic sanctions must be applied to individuals.
