COMMENTARY: Democracy on trial

Adherence to democracy, including free and fair elections, has been on
trial in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) region over the past three
months in Guyana and Suriname.

So far, Suriname is the only one that has come out of the trial with
credibility and with regional and international respect. Its
elections, held on May 25, were transparent and peaceful and its
results, formally declared on June 4, have been accepted by all the 17
contesting parties and their supporters.

Suriname will now proceed to install a coalition government of four
parties that have been in opposition and should easily be able to
secure the election of a new President by 34 of 51 votes in the
National Assembly. Chandrikapersad Santokhi, the leader of the
Progressive Reform Party, which secured the largest single block of
votes, is expected to be the new President.

If there was any sitting President of a country who should have had
every reason to rig an election, that President was Desi Bouterse who,
in 2019, was convicted and sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment with an
appeal still pending. In addition, he is also wanted in The
Netherlands after being convicted in 1999, in his absence, for
trafficking in cocaine. He knew that once he ceased to be President,
the law enforcement agencies would pursue him.

Yet, neither Bouterse nor his National Democratic Party attempted to
gerrymander the general elections process, which was declared to be
free of fraud by Observer missions from the Organization of American
States (OAS) and CARICOM.

The absence of any attempt at fraud, even with the stakes so high,
speaks exceedingly well of the Suriname electoral system and the
commitment of its managers to democracy, including resisting political
interference.

In stark contrast, in Guyana, the false tabulation of the votes of the
March 4 elections, and the manoeuvrings that followed, have shown
little regard for democracy or for a fair election. It appears that,
in a recount of all the votes that started on May 6, poll results may
have been manipulated to increase ballots for the APNU-AFC party of
President Granger significantly, and to reduce votes for Jagdeo’s
People’s Progressive Party drastically.

This recount, scrutineered by agents of CARICOM and observed by
representatives of the OAS and local groups, is nearing its elongated
and painful process that has taken four weeks so far.

However, as the end of the recount nears, the trial of democracy is
heightening. As the recounted votes show that APNU-AFC has clearly
lost the elections, its officials are reported to be demanding that
the entire general election should be voided. The basis for this
alarming demand is an unsubstantiated allegation that dead or absent
persons voted in the election. Curiously, this ominous statement has
come after the APNU-AFC leadership had earlier declared – along with
all the observer missions – that the voting, at which every party had
agents present, was free and fair.

The question now arises about what will happen when, by June 16, the
Guyana Electoral Commission (GECOM) announces the result of the
recounted votes of the elections. The entire regional and
international community has called for the result of the recount to be
accepted by all parties and that it be the basis for installing a
government that reflects the votes cast by the majority of the
electorate. In this way, Guyana, like Suriname, will transition into a
new government peacefully and lawfully, accepted at home and abroad.

Guyana can then look forward to holding a respected place in the
international community where it can pursue the interests of the
Guyanese people with credibility and strength.

If, however, there is disregard for the recounted votes and an
accompanying attempt to ignore democracy and the rule of law, the
international community will come down hard on an illegitimate
government, and the fortunes of the Guyanese people will once again be
thwarted.

The three main organisations in which Guyana advances its interests
are CARICOM, the Commonwealth and the Organization of American States.
Each of them demands, in their charters and other declarations, the
requirement for their member states to adhere to democracy and the
rule of law. Guyana is also a signatory to an Economic Partnership
Agreement with the European Union, under which it is committed to
human rights and democracy. The installation of an unlawful government
would trigger actions against Guyana in which the people would suffer
for the actions of a few.

Powerful countries of the world will also target them and their
families with sanctions for their violations of human, civil and
political rights.

While Suriname will proceed to reap the reward of its democracy and
its transparent elections by the embrace of the international
community in the production and sale of its now considerable oil and
gas resources, Guyana could see its own prospects dim for any similar
riches.

Even if any other CARICOM government wished to disregard democracy and
the rule of law in Guyana, CARICOM, as an organisation, could not do
so now. The CARICOM Secretariat has played an outstanding role in
observing these elections and pronouncing on them; CARICOM is bound to
those pronouncements.

Further, CARICOM Heads of Government played a rightful role in
ensuring that “every vote be counted, and every vote must count” in
the general elections. The international community stepped back from
its frontal role to give CARICOM the chance to deliver on a credible
recount of the votes. Therefore, CARICOM’s own credibility is now tied
to maintaining democracy and the rule of law in Guyana, and to acting
if those principles are crushed.

Guyana’s leaders of every political party, every race, and every
religion now bear a great responsibility to their country and their
people. They should seize this opportunity to show that Guyana is a
democracy, and, within that democracy, they can fashion representative
governance for all.