We never expected the rigging to be so blatant

Dear Editor,

It is not that some of us did not know. Instead, we were wondering at which stage of the process the election would be hijacked and rigged. We never expected it to be so blatant. I have written hundreds of letters and columns in the dailies on the reckless behaviour of this regime since it slipped into power in 2015 and one letter still gives the chills. It was written with a worrying mind and trembling hand, titled `The regime has realised that GECOM is its trump card to stay in power’ (SN, 12.16.2019). Let me pull three excerpts from that letter to illustrate my point.

Excerpt No. 1. “What seems amusing in all this rut is how David Granger was able to get Bharrat Jagdeo to have a GECOM

Chairperson of his choice. One can pull off such a clean and clever feat only if one is military-minded. It is a classic case of delaying tactics that broke through Jagdeo’s resistance. Sadly, Jagdeo is yet to realize what happened.”

No. 2. “This regime has this election in the bag and hear me out for two reasons. The regime has fought the NCM publicly, (we do not know what happened privately), and in doing so, was able to bring almost all important institutions under its fold, and in some cases, sway, to survive. Why would GECOM be excluded from this urge to hold to power lustily? In this process, the regime has realised, even serendipitously, that GECOM is its trump card to stay in power. GECOM is not independent.”

No. 3. “Not much the opposition can do; actually, not much they can do from now until March 2, 2020, to ensure a free and fair election. `Things’ have been already set up in every nodal point of the electoral process for this regime, even to contest the results, to stay in power.”

I share the above not to demonstrate that I am a mind reader, far from it. I am sharing because like so many other hundreds of views we were pleading please, please do not rig the election the world is watching. We were given the middle finger.

There was certainly a plan in place to do what we know now, to rig the election to stay in power.

Where do we go from here? For now, let me say we have entered Guyana style spring of democracy.

Yours faithfully, Lomarsh Roopnarine