This was Published on June 14, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dear\nEditor,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Forty\nyears and one day ago, the people of Guyana witnessed the assassination of one\nof the country\u2019s greatest sons, Dr. Walter Rodney, the inspirational voice of\nthe WPA. The unmistakeable hands of PNC Founder Leader Forbes Burnham, through\nthe instrumentality of the Guyana Defence Force, were found on the figurative\ntrigger. What caused Burnham to proceed to such an extreme measure was that his\nseries of rigged elections had been exposed internationally, much to his\nembarrassment. With the security of unchallenged power, Burnham and his PNC\npursued policies which ruined the economy of the most resource-rich country of\nthe Caribbean. It required the support of the Americans and the British to\nfacilitate the return of democracy in Guyana. It required the intervention of\nthe IMF, the World Bank and other donor agencies and countries to restore\nviability to the Guyana economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\nseem destined for another assassination. This time not of a single or a few\npersons, but of a nation, of democracy, of the right to vote and to have that\nvote counted. In an act of extreme cynicism, historian David Granger and\nwannabe heir to the Burnham curse, chose the anniversary of Burnham\u2019s\nassassination of Rodney to make his own mark on history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In\nthe culmination of a move by Granger four years ago to hijack the elections\nmachinery by the unlawful installation of former judge James Patterson as the\nhead of GECOM, the Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield gave Granger his\nwish by declaring that he could not ascertain that \u201cthe recount results meet\ncriteria of fair, credible elections\u201d. Here is a man who has been employed by\nGECOM for approximately two decades, who has supervised the spending of around\nfifteen billion dollars ($15 billion), admitting that he is incapable of\ncarrying out his basic function. His incompetence however has implications\nbeyond $15 billion. It will cost this country its democracy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n From\nthe top, there was Vincent Alexander who steered through the recount Order that\nmade APNU+AFC agents into unsworn witnesses and Lowenfield the one-man\ntribunal. And there was the Deputy Elections Officer brought in by Patterson to\ncarry out the `work\u2019 from the inside with able assistance from Aubrey Norton\nand others from the outside. Of course, Lowenfield and his deputy were not\nshort of cues from Granger and his paid defilers of democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A\ncursory read of Lowenfield\u2019s report could easily have been taken from Granger\u2019s\nhymnbook. Just one night before Lowenfield chose to submit his report \u2013 he was\nworking on it for an almost forty biblical days \u2013 Granger had told a radio\ninterview that there were 7,929 instances of irregularities \u2013 approximately\nthree per polling station \u2013 and that those directly affected the validity of\n257,173 votes or more that 56% of the votes cast in the elections! This is\nprecisely Lowenfield\u2019s line as the following extract from his report shows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA\ntotal of eighty-six boxes stand affected due to a total of three hundred and\nthirty-eight anomalies and\/or alleged voter impersonation. In other words,\napproximately 75% of all votes cast for general elections are associated with\nboxes that stand to be impacted due to either anomalies and\/or voter impersonation.\nSpecifically, 3% of the votes cast were impacted by anomalies, while 55% were\nimpacted by voter impersonation, and 17% impacted by both\nanomalies\/irregularities and voter impersonation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lowenfield\nthinks that his outlandish findings that 56 out of every 100 votes have been\ntainted by impersonation are more credible than the outstanding work on\nElections Day by all the GECOM officials, APNU+AFC officials, party officials\nand domestic and international observers. According to Lowenfield, APNU+AFC has\n125,000 untainted votes while the PPP\/C has 56,000 votes! In a mathematical act\nof insanity, Lowenfield is disenfranchising about six out of every ten voters.\nHe was Granger\u2019s man and like Gregory Smith did for Burnham, he has worked\nbeyond the call of duty. Mingo is now the lesser of two mischief makers. He\nmade the APNU+AFC the winner via a fraudulent declaration of Region 4.\nLowenfield has made the APNU+AFC the winner based on the entire country. Based\non Lowenfield\u2019s report, his APNU+AFC actually earned more untainted votes than\nthe PPP\/C: 125,000 to 56,000. He has disenfranchised 60 per cent of the voters\nin the elections. Lowenfield was part of the Mingo fraud by elevating to the\nCommission Mingo\u2019s fraudulent Region 4 declaration to which the world was exposed.\nMingo\u2019s place in the hall of infamy remains assured, now, Lowenfield has joined\nhim, unmasking the real deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To\nshow his unashamed bias, Lowenfield accepted without evidence or inquiry, every\nsingle allegation or challenge made by the APNU+AFC during the recount. At the\nsame time, his report does not even acknowledge that the other contesting\nparties had objected to or rebutted many of those spurious and unfounded\nallegations. In fact, there are reports that many GECOM officials refused to\ninclude on the Observation Reports the rebuttals to the APNU+AFC\u2019s made-up\nallegations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If\nGECOM Chair Claudette Singh does not intervene to stop Lowenfield\u2019s inchoate\nattempt at assassinating elections in Guyana, Guyana will suffer from the\nabsence of free and fair elections perhaps for decades to come. Unless she and\nher commissioners act to reverse Lowenfield\u2019s finding, June 13\u2019s claim for\nbeing a day of national disgrace in Guyana is doubly assured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yours\nfaithfully,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher\nRam <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This was Published on June 14, 2020 Dear Editor, Forty years and one day ago, the people of Guyana witnessed the assassination of one of the country\u2019s greatest sons, Dr. Walter Rodney, the inspirational voice of the WPA. The unmistakeable hands of PNC Founder Leader Forbes Burnham, through the instrumentality of the Guyana Defence Force, … <\/p>\n