Dr. Gonsalves’ comments mirror PPP’s narrative – Harmon
—a conspiracy to subvert the will of the people
DPI, Guyana, Thursday, June 11, 202
The recent utterances of Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines and incoming Chair of CARICOM, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves resembles a narrative of the opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and shows a clear attempt to subvert the will of the Guyanese people.
This view was expressed by APNU+AFC’s campaign manager Joseph Harmon this evening in a televised statement.
Harmon said the Coalition finds it “strange and alarming” that Dr. Gonsalves would make statements of this nature which closely resembles that of the PPP. He said Dr. Gonsalves has taken a public position that is prejudicial to the integrity and eventual outcome of the ongoing national recount of the March 2, 2020, General and Regional Elections.
Dr. Gonsalves, who is currently embroiled in an elections petition in his country over a fraudulent 2015 polls, today dictated that Guyana’s duly constitutional body, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) should focus only on the vote recount to declare a winner of the March 2 polls.
The Prime Minister made such statements although the elections commission is currently involved in a four-stage process, that is seeking the credibility of the elections.
The commission is currently at the second stage, where the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) is compiling a report of the tabulation along with the massive irregularities that are listed in the Observation Reports.
His comments come too at a time when the three-member high-level CARICOM team, invited by GECOM to scrutinise the recount, is also preparing its report of the first stage of the process to submit to the commission.
“These circumstances all taken together, paint a picture of a conspiracy to subvert the will of the Guyanese people. And it is in this vein that the APNNU-AFC agrees that CARICOM should not make the statement made by Dr. Gonsalves to stand,” Harmon said.
Harmon reminded that Dr Gonsalves is not yet the Chairman of CARICOM.
“While the recount is still ongoing, it is inimical to the interest of all Guyanese. It is also clear that Dr. Gonsalves fails to understand a CARICOM process which was initiated following a prime ministerial delegation to Guyana of which he was a part.”
Harmon outrightly rejected Dr. Gonsalves’ statement that there were no pre-election objections to the bloated list of electors. He reminded that the Coalition had strenuously objected to the bloated voters’ list
“GECOM’s efforts to sanitise the list was thwarted by court actions brought by the PPP. On elections day, senior members of the PPP were also fingered in an alleged ID card distribution exercise on the East Coast of Demerara, in the same areas that the recount has now shown to be the epicentre of a massive electoral fraud,” he stated.
Harmon noted that the ongoing recount process is important, not only for democracy in Guyana but the wider CARICOM.