Guyana must be the most pathetic country in the world with a cadre of political leaders who are the most impressive looking simpletons in the history of world politics. With an eligible voting constituency of just about 400,000 persons, it is perplexing to see that the final results are still being discussed three months later with dangerous talk of rigging.

The recent statements made by the President and reported in the Guyana Chronicle implying that the opposition allegedly had a role to play in rigging activities during the November 28 Election is grossly irresponsible. Apparently the President and his party cannot accept that their last decade of gross mismanagement and corruption along with their poor performance in fighting crime, the drug trade and a miserably failing economic strategy were all key factors that served to place the PPP in its present position. The presumption with which the President is marching down this dangerous path reveals his blatant insensitivity and utter disrespect towards the hard working men and women at GECOM.

Some feel that it might be a ploy by the PPP to justify a call for fresh elections, so it can achieve the parliamentary majority it lost. However, this malicious rhetoric and spurious insinuations are nothing but a gravely low attempt at appealing to the less perceptive minds which sadly forms the base of the PPP support. Surely no sensible Guyanese could listen to the President’s rants and not see where he intends to head with his sensationalism.

While GECOM demonstrated during the last election that it is in desperate need of new processing mappings, there is nothing to suggest that the election results were rigged in any way in favor of the opposition. Speaking bluntly, the protracted time GECOM took to count these ‘few’ votes coupled with the mischief that agents of the PPP were perpetuating at various polling stations around the country might actually be cause for concern to the opposition.

No opposition figure was seen bullying his or her way into any polling station in any attempt to disrupt counting or to allegedly intimidate polling staff. No opposition agent was removed by the Police for causing disruptions at any polling station. Quite frankly, the opposition was in no way associated with anything that was inimical to the smooth and accurate counting and subsequent reporting of the voting results. So for the President to discover three months after the polls that the opposition had something to do with the PPP losing its majority vote is imprudent and narcissistic. 

It is regrettable that in the middle of the newly conceived tripartite talks the President is making such reckless statements in the public domain. Is it sensible for the opposition parties to engage in any form of civilized conversation with the President and the PPP if this dangerous posture continues? Given this unhealthy political environment, the tripartite talks must be abandoned.

On November 28 2011, Guyanese voted for political change. While they might not have gotten a change in government they have gotten a change in the way government behaves. The combined opposition is a representation of a large section of the population fed up with the PPP and their institutionalized incompetence. The President should be more constructive in trying to sensibly engage the opposition. He must address the very serious issues being presented to him rather than be mouthing off ludicrous allegations in the media concerning an election that has the fingerprints of the PPP all over it.