Granger has avoided stating he will accept recount result and is not innocent of this attempt to force rigged election on country

Dear Editor,

On Sunday last, David Granger emerged from his home complete with massive security surrounded by a phalanx of former APNU+AFC Ministers and imposed his ‘Presidential’ presence on the GECOM Recount proceedings. Granger arrived at GECOM for no good reason other than to reassure his Party faithful that he is still in charge, rather than to reassure the country that he recognizes and supports the legitimacy of the Recount or that he will accept the results.

What, in fact, did he do and say at GECOM? He deliberately confuses his status as to whether he has come as our ‘de facto’ President or as that of the APNU+AFC Presidential Candidate. Having held meetings with the GECOM Chairman and senior staff and the CARICOM Scrutineers, he then crosses the road to hold a Press Conference, whether as ‘de facto’ President or Party Leader, it never becomes clear, obliging the Chairman of GECOM to join him at his side. He then speaks both as APNU+AFC leader and as Leader of the Government, completely compromising the presence of the GECOM Chair, who should have immediately excused herself.

The Press Conference was carefully orchestrated and managed by none other than Cathy Hughes who has no governmental information role and was clearly acting in her Party capacity.

At the Press Conference, Granger persistently refused to answer straightforward questions as to whether he would recognize and accept the result of the Recount, claiming only that “whatever declaration is made by the Chairman of the Elections Commission would be recognized as legitimate by the Coalition Government”.

Pressed further by reporters, in spite of the effort by Hughes to manage them, on the fact that his Attorney General, the day before had challenged the legitimacy of the Recount, Granger repeats this time, “as President of Guyana and Leader of the Government, it is my policy that any declaration coming from the Chairman of GECOM will be accepted by the Government of Guyana”.

But to what exactly had Granger committed himself? To learn that, you had to hear what he said the next day at a Mark Benschop radio interview, where he declared that he is “confident” that his party has won the elections.

So what, then, if the GECOM Chairman, faced with the overwhelming evidence of the recount, announces that it is the PPP/C that has won the elections, would Granger say to the APNU+AFC voters who he has persistently misled?

He also used the Benschop interview to perpetuate the lie that “the opposition stormed” the GECOM centre to invade the office of the GECOM Chair. I was there. So were the International Observers. There was no invasion. It was when Mingo first attempted to declare a fraudulent result of the unfinished District 4 tabulation that he was shouted down to prevent him from doing so. The Chairman of GECOM remained perfectly secure in her office, inexplicably choosing to ignore Mingo’s performance.

But Granger did not only refuse to acknowledge acceptance of the result of the Recount at his Press Conference, he also refused to reject the Mingo/Lowenfield declaration which remains in “abeyance”. Granger left that for Ms. Singh to consider when using her casting vote in the Commission. We know how Granger’s Commissioners will vote.

Granger also refused at his Press Conference to recognize and accept the credibility of the election process on elections day. According to him, it was “premature”, leaving yet another decision wide open for Ms. Singh to decide upon by using her casting vote in the Commission.

All those decisions carefully placed upon the shoulders of Ms. Singh by David Granger could, of course, lead to Ms. Singh swearing in David Granger as President of another APNU+AFC Government, regardless of the results of the number of ballots counted in favour of the

PPP/C.

To sum it up:

* Granger has refused to recognize the fraud committed by Mingo as the immediate beneficiary of that fraud.

* Granger has refused to recognize that the Recount of the ballots currently taking place must deliver the results of the elections.

* Granger has refused to recognize the credibility of the election process on elections day which was recognized by all of the Observers and signed onto by all of the APNU+AFC party agents.

* Granger has refused to recognize that the declaration by Lowenfield, based on the tabulation of Mingo, is fraudulent and must be rejected without exception.

* Granger has refused to recognize the evidence of the Statements of Poll in his party’s possession which were publicly displayed on election day for the world to see as irrefutable evidence that the PPP/C has won the election by a substantial majority.

David Granger still has the gall to say to the world that it is not me, that this has nothing to do with me, that I am innocent of all of this, that it is all the responsibility of the Chairman of GECOM. Not really! Granger hangs on to power from a fraud committed and embraced in GECOM by the very people that he appointed to the Commission. A fraud that his candidate went to the Court to keep alive and defended by the lawyers hired and paid for by his Government. David Granger has stopped the Carter Center from observing the Recount.

David Granger is not innocent of this attempt to force a rigged election on our country. David Granger has the power and authority in his hands, to, tomorrow, release our country from the agony and growing disaster in which he and his party has placed us, by simply accepting the actual result of the elections and conceding that he has lost the elections.

Yours faithfully, Kit Nascimento