Jamaica votes, tensions rise in Guyana
By Bert Wilkinson
While nearly two million
Jamaicans prepared to vote in
general elections on Thursday,
Guyana’s main opposition party
Monday confidently filed a petition
against the results of the
country’s disputed March 2 polls
as one of the busiest years for
adult suffrage continues with two
more scheduled in the regional
bloc by yearend.
By the time Jamaicans decide
whether the governing Jamaica
Labor Party (JLP) will win a second
consecutive term or whether
the opposition People’s National
Party (PNL) will unseat the
administration of Prime Minister
Andrew Holness, the focus in the
bloc of 15 nations will soon to
turn member states Belize where
fresh elections are due by the end
of December.
As the region awaits the Jamaica
results, protests erupted in
Guyana last weekend as angry
APNU-AFC Coalition supporters
blocked the main east-west
highway to Suriname and burned
tires protesting the arrest of six
electoral officials including Clairmont
Mingo, the controversial
returning officer for the main
electoral district number four in
Guyana.
Mingo, 69, was arrested a week
ago, detained and slapped with
electoral fraud related charges
linked to alleged fraudulent numbers
Caribbean L 20 ife, Sept. 4-10, 2020
he had tendered a day after
the March 2 polls that had shown
a win for the coalition, now in
opposition.
Angry with his treatment by
the police and fanned by suspicions
that the government
was using the police vindictively
against Mingo, angry residents of
the coastal village of Belladrum
staged protests, blocking the
main highway for hours, snarling
traffic for miles as they railed
against his continued detention.
Police fired tear gas and rubber
bullets at the opposition protesters,
injuring one man in the process.
An officer was also injured
after being hit by an object. The
protests subsided after Mingo was
placed on $3,000 bail after an initial
court appearance on Monday.
His appearance in court came
a day before the governing People’s
Progressive Party (PPP) convened
Guyana’s parliament for
the first time in nearly two years,
electing a speaker and a deputy
and preparing the way for a mini
2020 budget by mid September.
Guyana has been without a
functioning parliament since late
2018 when the previous administration
of former President David
Granger was defeated by an opposition
no confidence motion, rendering
it as a caretaker government
until March and until the
PPP was sworn into office on
Aug. 2 after a five month period
of court challenges and a 33-day
recount that had delayed the declaration
of official results.
Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon
said the coalition is confident
that its allegations about
widespread and systematic rigging
by the PPP will be borne out
by the evidence it will present in
the petition including 49 ballot
boxes mainly with votes for the
PPP with not a single supporting
document. There was, he said
also, evidence of a few thousand
migrated people voting as well as
other irregularities the grouping
will present to the court.
Meanwhile, Jamaican security
forces, its para military and
essential workers voted at the
start of the week ahead of the
main population. The electoral
commission said it was printing
nearly two million ballots for the
63 districts for which 139 candidates
are contesting.
Authorities have already outlined
COVID-sensitive voting procedures
including for those who
have tested positive. These won’t
be denied the right to vote but
would have to be taken to polling
stations under strict supervision.
PM Holness said he was forced
to name a date six months before
fresh elections are constitutionally
due because of fears that the
steadily increasing positive numbers
could worsen as the months
went by and would discourage
people from joining lines to vote.
Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness. Yhomo Hutchinson
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