Georgetown: Former President, David Granger reportedly tapped the phones of his of senior A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) officials during the recount of the March 2 General and Regional Elections.
Those persons were identified as Volda Lawrence, Joseph Harmon and Raphael Trotman. This is according to Vice-President, Bharrat Jagdeo.
In an interview with the Newsroom’s Insider programme on Friday, Jagdeo reflected on the 2020 elections which he said saw a blatant attempt, APNU+AFC to sabotage not only the elections, but the recount of the votes as well.
“We discovered, after we got into office, that President Granger may not have trusted the leadership of APNU…. He (Granger) got the security forces to tap the phone of Harmon, Trotman and Volda Lawrence,” Jagdeo said. He hinted that even though the then President Granger had approved the recount, there were “hundreds of behind the scenes” issues that served as attempts to prevent the effective execution of the exercise.
“We probably didn’t sleep for 24 hours (some days),” Jagdeo said in the interview.
Referring to Granger as an “aloof” leader, Jagdeo believes the trio – Lawrence, Harmon and Trotman – were particularly worried about the recount of the votes cast on March 2, 2020.
As it is, there have been numerous reports of a split in the APNU; more specifically, it has been alleged that there are efforts to remove Granger from the helm of the party, owing to claims of him being a “dictatorial” leader. More notably, it was alleged that several executives of the People’s National Congress (PNC) had been working on No-Confidence Motions geared at removing Granger from his leadership position. These claims have since been rubbished by the PNC, which claimed that the party is as solid as it has ever been.
Jagdeo, a former President, reminded that when allegations relating to the integrity of the votes were raised, the then President (Granger) expressed claims relating to the integrity of the votes cast in Regions Three, Four and Five. To this end, Jagdeo said that the People’s Progressive Party /Civic agreed to a full recount of all of the votes since the then Opposition “had nothing to hide”. Jagdeo said that even though the international community had concerns relating to the integrity of the votes cast, the observers were not prepared to recognise the PPP/C as winners of the elections; at least not until it was officially declared via a recount. “They knew of the rigging, but they [the international observers] had not looked at the real SoPs [Statement of Polls] as yet,” Jagdeo said. Since the elections, several persons have been charged for their roles in the alleged electoral fraud. Chief among them is the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield; his deputy, Roxanne Myers; and the District Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo.
Lowenfield is faced with three counts of Misconduct in Public Office and three counts of Forgery, while Mingo was charged with four counts of Misconduct in Public Office and Myers with two counts of Misconduct in Public Office.
In addition to Lowenfield, Mingo and Myers, Chairperson of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), Volda Lawrence; Opposition activist, Carol Joseph; the CEO’s clerks, Michelle Miller and Denise Bob-Cummings; Elections Officer, Shefern February, and Information Technology Officer, Enrique Livan, were also charged. They are all accused of inflating the results of Region Four, Guyana’s largest voting district, to give the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition a majority win at the March 2, 2020 polls, when in fact the PPP/C had won by 15,000 votes. Based on the events of the 2020 elections, President, Dr. Irfaan Ali, has insisted that it is not wise for Guyana to have any other elections over which Lowenfield, Myers and Mingo are allowed to preside. It is for this reason that the Head of State has refrained from announcing a date for the country’s Local Government Elections, even though $1.1 billion has already been budgeted in 2021 for this purpose.
It has been almost 17 months since the embattled three have been accused of attempting to thwart the outcome of the elections. Despite being criminally charged on various counts of electoral fraud allegedly committed during the March 2, General and Regional Elections, Lowenfield, Myers and Mingo remain at their post at GECOM.
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