Community News
Guyana’s protests for democracy and fair elections lead to vote recount
BY JANIECE CAMPBELL
On March 11th, 2020, Chief Justice Roxanne George-Wiltshire ordered the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to verify the results of the Region Four votes, a key district in the March 2nd elections.
The election results were declared as invalid.
The High Court ruled that the results did not legally comply in accordance with Section 84.1 of the Representation of the People Act. The commission was ordered to repeat the verification process.
The act states: “As soon as practicable after the receipt of all the ballot boxes and the envelopes and packets delivered to him in pursuance of Section 83 (10), the Returning Officer shall, in the presence of such of the persons entitled under Section 86 (1), to be present as attend, ascertain the total votes cast in favour of the list in accordance with the Statements of Poll, and thereupon publicly declare the votes recorded for each list of candidates.”
In simpler terms, Returning Officer (RO) Clairmont Mingo, failed to add up the votes fairly and instead, used a pre-prepared spreadsheet as the basis for totalling the votes. During the elections, there were 897 polling stations in Region Four, but the RO only followed the verification process for 421 Statements of Poll.
The lack of transparency subsequently caused unrest among citizens, resulting in many aggressive clashes and transportation disruptions across the nation.
Continuous acts of violence against authority involving groups armed with cutlasses, pieces of wood and iron led to the police killing of an 18-year-old protestor, Seedat ‘Devon’ Hansraj.
In Toronto, the Association of Concerned Guyanese and members of the Guyanese Diaspora in Canada held a public mass demonstration in support of free and fair elections. The event took place at Nathan Phillips Square and over 700 attendees united in hopes of restoring democracy in Guyana.
Janet Naidu, a Guyanese native that immigrated to Canada in 1975, assisted in organizing the protest.
“It was nice to see so many people come out, and not just for the sake of politics in Guyana. It was about the right for our votes to be counted. It was a fight for democracy and having our voices heard.”
Since the 1960s, Guyana has a history of unfairness in elections. It began in 1968, with the elections being rigged in favour of the People’s National Congress (PNC) led by Forbes Burnham. What was significant about this election was that the United States government had full knowledge about the fraudulent plans and proceeded to fund the campaign. They knew that Burnham’s victory would prevent Marxist Cheddi Jagan from regaining power, a fear fueled by the Cold War. Later unfair election years include 1973, 1980 and 1985.
Naidu recalls a time where she heard the story about a man finding a ballot box in the trenches.
“Throughout history, there were many people who have been disempowered. Today, when we see that, we should not stand back and be a silent majority. We should speak up. We have quite a large majority in our Canadian atmosphere to help create change.”
In 1992, The Carter Center worked with Guyana to help deepen democracy, strengthen civil society and assisted in reinforcing rule of law. It was visible that the country was built on weak democratic foundations, a fragile economic base and underlying tensions between the Afro and Indo-Guyanese communities. Concerned about these patterns, The Carter Center aided in bringing skills in conflict resolution and democracy building to the nation.
For Janet Naidu, she says the first step to avoiding these situations relies on humanity improving on personal values.
“We need to elevate and have greater respect for one another. I think it’s important for this to be worked on or else this cycle will continue.”
She concludes. “In addition to standing up for democracy in Guyana and raising awareness in our Canadian environment through the demonstration, we hope for peace and stability and the safety of all Guyanese living in Guyana.”
The electoral commission has yet to proclaim a winner in the race.