The following is a full statement from the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) in response to President David Granger’s address today, on the national recount of the votes cast in the March 2 polls.
President Granger has emerged from his slumber and has issued one of his usually sterile and placatory statements. Once again, he distances himself from the fraud that his party has attempted to perpetrate in relation to the Region 4 results, through the instrumentality of Mingo; the subsequent violation of the Chief Justice’s Order granted on March 11, by Mingo and encouraged by his party hacks which led to Mingo making a second false declaration.
He speaks of a delay in the declaration of results as if he is unconnected with it when this very delay was caused by his own political party and his Commissioners at GECOM. He attributes this delay to legal challenges in the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal, without disclosing that these challenges were filed by Ulita Moore and Roysdale Forde, both candidates of his political party, and when they lost in the High Court, they filed an appeal to the Court of Appeal, where they lost again.
He speaks about his compliance with court rulings when the world knows that he refused to comply with the Judgement of Caribbean Court of Justice in relation to the No-Confidence Motion. He speaks of compliance with the Constitution and Laws of Guyana, although, no other Head of State in the English speaking Caribbean, over the past fifty years, has been found guilty of violating their Constitution, than him, including, his unilateral appointment of James Patterson as Chairman of GECOM and his refusal to comply with the Constitution, in relation to the No-Confidence Motion, just to name two.
His promise, therefore, to accept the declaration of the Elections Commission, after the recount, rings hollow and provides comfort for no one. Guyanese are too acquainted with his record and strategy of making grand promises and giving solemn commitments on the one hand, while on the other hand, he instructs his political lackeys to do everything possible, to undermine them. Only recently, we saw his commitment to the US Congressmen, Albio Sires, Gregory Meeks and Yvette Clarke to ensure free and fair elections are held and to accept the results. We also saw his commitment to CARICOM, to have a recount done, expeditiously, under the scrutiny of a CARICOM team, while instructing his Commissioners at GECOM to object to it and then ordering his candidates to rush to the High Court to prohibit it.
Now that the process is about to start, because all their efforts, so far, have failed, they are denying International Observer Teams permission to return to observe the process.
The President must demonstrate his bona fides by
1) Releasing APNU+AFC copies of the SOPs for Region Four and urge GECOM to do the same. This will be consistent with the position that he took as Opposition Leader in 2011.
2) Instructing the Rigging Cabal at Congress Place and his Commissioners at GECOM to stop undermining and attempting to derail the recount process;
3) Intervening to permit Carter Center and the other accredited International Observer Teams to return to Guyana to complete their mission of observing the March 2, elections.
