The attack launched by the A Partnership for National Unity/ Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC) caretaker government on respected Caribbean statesman, Bruce Golding, over his damning assessment of the March 2, polls, is unwarranted, unjustified and must be denounced by all stakeholders.
This is according to Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) Executive Member, Anil Nandlall, who, during a brief engagement with the media this morning, hammered the incumbent Coalition over their response to preliminary reports by various International Observers that the tabulation process for District Four results was fraudulent.
Golding, a former prime minister of Jamaica, had led the Organisation of American States’ Electoral Observation Mission (OAS-EOM) to monitor Guyana’s March 2 General and Regional Elections.
On Wednesday, Golding presented his preliminary report to the Permanent Council of the OAS. During his presentation, the EOM Head said, “I have never seen a more transparent effort to alter the results of an election.”
According to Golding, this is even more brazen given the paper trail that is in place, including the fact that more than a dozen copies of the Statements of Poll (SOPs) which indicate how many votes were obtained by each party are prepared at each polling station after the ballots are counted on election night.
This assessment has reportedly angered the incumbent Coalition, who resorted to launching a personal attack on the former regional head in their desperate attempts to discredit the findings of the OAS Electoral Observer Mission.
However, Nandlall in response, said that Golding could have only reported on what his mission observed; and to do otherwise would have been a dereliction of duty on his part.
“Golding is an internationally-recognised statesman, that is why he was chosen by an organisation as prestigious and important as the OAS,” Nandlal noted.
“There was no secret that fraud was perpetrated. The rigging was done in a glass room, and who was not inside the room could have seen from outside the room…Mr Golding has a duty to report what he observed,” Nandlall fumed.
“You can’t want to commit election thievery in the public’s eye and when the public speaks about their observations you are offended,” Nandlall said.
In presenting his assessment on Wednesday, Golding pointed to several instances where the recount of ballot boxes showed a vast difference between the figures on the SOP and those declared by Mingo.
The EOM head also noted that the current National Recount, which the OAS has representatives here monitoring, has already revealed that the Region Four results that were declared by embattled Returning Officer (RO) Clairmont Mingo were heavily inflated in favour of the incumbent APNU/AFC Coalition.
