Plans B, C and D
On Thursday Mr Joseph Harmon held a press conference on behalf of his party at the APNU+AFC headquarters on Lamaha Street. The AFC’s Raphael Trotman was also there, no doubt in order to underscore the fact that both segments of the governing party were in alignment. Since Mr Harmon spoke for the party one must presume by extension he also spoke for President David Granger, since it would be difficult to imagine that the party and its leader would be pursuing not just different, but also incompatible goals.
What Mr Harmon did do was elucidate for the public’s benefit a fuller account of APNU+AFC’s thinking. He told the media that Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield had submitted a report of the final results to Gecom, but the consideration of this had been interrupted by the filing of several court matters. Once these had been discharged, he said, the Commission would meet and after reviewing the report would declare the coalition the winner of the March 2 elections. We have heard this from him before, of course, but on the last occasion the Chief Justice handed down a ruling which possibly they did not expect, and certainly they did not want.
Inevitably Mr Harmon was asked the obvious question as to whether his party believed that the declaration from the Region Four Returning Officer was the consequence of a fraudulent process. He at first temporised, digressing to give the assembled reporters a definition of fraud – “…[it] is not a political term; it is a legal concept which requires specific averments that speak to fraud…” − but then going on to say, “not a finger has been lifted to say that the APNU+AFC was involved in any fraud.” That did not answer the question which was asked, namely, whether Mr Mingo’s declaration was the consequence of fraud.
Despite that, there is no doubt that the governing party is still not prepared to admit a fraudulent tabulation despite the fact that all international observers as well as local ones, the other contesting political parties and foreign diplomats have maintained the results were not credible. It appears to disturb the sleep of neither Mr Harmon nor the Leader of the party, that the coalition alone refuses to concede a problem with the results. Any party acting in good faith would want to establish without further ado what the true numbers are, and would not be trying to avert through the courts and by other means a recount to establish that. Surely they are not hoping to persuade all the observers and other parties that they did not see what they saw, and that those SoPs which have