In a bid to acquaint him with the facts, activists from the New York Guyana Democracy Project (NYDP) have reached out to Congressman Hakeem Jeffries with side-by-side comparisons of the declarations made by Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo and the figures being revealed in the recount.
In an open letter to the Congressman, President of the NYDP, Dr Tara Singh, presented the Congressman with at least two examples – ballot box 4064 at Friendship Secondary School, and Ballot box 4063 at Garden of Eden, Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Lecture Hall.
In the case of ballot box 4064, Mingo declared A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) as having won 170 votes and the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) as winning 73 votes.
However, the Statements of Poll (SOP) in the party’s possession show APNU winning 70 and the PPP 93, while the Statement of Recount (SOR) show APNU winning 71 and 96. It therefore means that Mingo inflated APNU/AFC’s numbers by at least 99 and subtracted 23 from the PPP.
In ballot box 4063, Mingo declared APNU/AFC as winning 85 votes and the PPP, 246. However, both the SOP and the SOR show APNU/AFC winning just 15 votes and the PPP, 276. It means that Mingo inflated APNU/AFC’s votes by 70 and reduced the PPP’s votes by 30.
“There (are) many examples of this electoral fraud. The US Ambassador, along with the top diplomats of the European Union, the United Nations, the British and the Canadian governments, have joined the US Secretary and the Assistant Secretary of State, the British Foreign Secretary, the Commonwealth Secretary General, the OAS, CARICOM Prime Ministers and several Election Observer Missions in calling upon the election body, GECOM, to conduct a credible and transparent election process.
“This call has been intensified when GECOM’s Clairmont Mingo, in the plain view of the world, declared inflated figures in favour of APNU-AFC party. This fraud has also been exposed in the recount process. It’s because of the possibility of rigged results that Congressman Albio Sires (D) and bipartisan members of Congress Gregory Meeks (D), Sanford Bishop (D), Francis Rooney (R), Jeff Duncan (R), Jennifer Gonzalez, (R), issued a press release on March 12, 2020 stating: “We welcome the decision to initiate a vote recount in Guyana, and reiterate our bipartisan commitment to supporting a fully transparent election process that reflects the will of the Guyanese people.”
Singh noted that in order to press their case for more transparency, the congressional representatives had also called on the Government to allow the Carter Center and the technical advisory team from the International Republican Institute (IRI) to return to Guyana and join CARICOM in observing the recount process.
“Diplomats, local political parties, civil society and international bodies calling for credible and transparent elections results merely reflect what the APNU-AFC leader, Mr David Granger, the PPPC leader, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, and other political leaders have been advocating. Credible and transparent election is a bedrock of democracy, and we know that you, too, embrace this,” Singh also said.
Jeffries is a high-ranking US Congressman who has also previously been linked to APNU/AFC, having attended their victory party in New York back in 2015. Jeffries had also written the then US Administration to intervene in Guyana’s political affairs after President Donald Ramotar had constitutionally prorogued Parliament. In fact, that letter was released by APNU/AFC activist Rickford Burke’s outfit.
Recently, Jeffries criticised the US Government for what he called “foreign interference” in Guyana’s affairs during an interview with Burke. This is despite widely documented complaints of fraudulent tabulations.
