Rigged elections in Guyana

Most Guyanese refused to believe that David Granger and the PNC – camouflaged as APNU/AFC – would have rigged to keep to power. Very “knowledgeable” citizens insisted that the electoral system had enough robust safeguards to prevent the electoral shenanigans that took place under the PNC regimes between 1973 and 1985. But they were thinking of technical safeguards, such as the integrity of the electoral lists, counting of ballots at the place of poll in the presence of scrutineers and other innovations that were instituted specifically to rectify abuses the old PNC regimes.
However, they forgot that the PNC had also resorted to what is referred to as “brute force and ignorance” in the local idiom to intervene, which left no doubt in the minds of the international community – including Caricom – that they had rigged the elections. This started in 1973, when the Army was mobilised “to protect the ballot boxes”, when in fact the hard-won right of the Opposition parties to accompany the boxes to the Counting Office in their Region, was being exercised. Two PPP activists were shot and killed by the army when they attempted to accompany the ballot boxes to the place of counting. David Granger was to write in his account of the 1973 army role that the soldiers performed “admirably”. The army, in fact, not only seized the boxes but transported them all to GDF Headquarters at Camp Ayanganna, Georgetown, where they were “counted”, out of sight of any civilians.
PNC leader Forbes Burnham had adumbrated a new philosophy for the GDF in 1970. “I do not share with the British the concept that the Army is separate and distinct from everything else and loyal to the government of the day. As Prime Minister, I expect you to be loyal to this Government. If there is any other government, it is a matter for you to decide about that, but as far as I am concerned I don’t want any abstract loyalty…I have now arranged with the Chief of Staff that, in future, all recruits, apart from their military training, will also have to attend a course of lectures on the philosophy and ideology of the government and the Co-op Republic”.
David Granger was then the officer who was responsible for indoctrinating the army in the new philosophy and as he wrote. “The sound political education that the officers and soldiers received during 1971 and 1972 enabled them to act with tact, discretion and firmness in 1973 and saved the day.” Granger’s career is coterminous with blatant electoral rigging.
In his gamebook, then, the most extreme action can be taken to retain power and as Burnham demonstrated, the regime would be able to survive. Some might say the circumstances that made the world look past the PNC’s rigging have disappeared, but across the world there are illegitimate regimes that have held on to power because they have the coercive institutions of the state at their disposal, to put down any internal opposition challenge.
Granger has brushed off even the condemnation and warnings of the western powers that are supposed to wield so much influence in Guyana. He has done so because he calculates that since his regime will not threaten their interests, they will go along with his illegal seizure of power after a short period of huffing and puffing. He is counting on their historically short span of attention when it comes to “sh*thole” countries.
But in our estimation, Granger has seriously misread the situation. While the rationale for the Western interest – ideology and the Cold War— might have disappeared, their economic interest in our massive oil find and their strategic interest vis a vis their desire to return democratic governance to Venezuela will compel them to apply the same yardstick to Guyana. They cannot, on one hand, support the ouster of Maduro because of his lack of democratic credentials in favour of Opposition Leader Guido and accept Granger’s rigged electionS in Guyana.