THE MORE THINGS CHANGE…
The free world sees the United States as the bastion of democracy, with free and fair elections as its central feature and an enduring symbol. For that reason, many were appalled at the claim by Donald Trump, that elements of the US elections were exposed to rigging. He has not provided any evidence to support his claim. It seems like a baseless allegation.Elections in the United States have always been followed closely by other nations, largely because, among other reasons, they feel they have a vested interest in the outcome. America is regarded as the undisputed leader of the free world, and while it is not perfect, its democracy is accepted as the standard by which every other country is judged.
It is important for Guyana to understand this concept because of its painful experience with a flawed electoral system, highlighted in the not too distant past by racial voting, rigged elections and political unrest.So if the so-called standard bearer of democracy and the most powerful nation on earth—the United States of America—could have accusations of vote rigging, what would make us believe that our electoral system would not?Given significant improvements made in recent years, one could say the PPP’s accusation that the last election was rigged to allow the coalition parties to win by a razor-thin parliamentary majority is essentially without merit.
That claim was not substantiated by the Elections Commission. It also begs the question as to how it would have been possible for the opposition to rig any election when the incumbent had control of the election apparatus for almost two and a half decades. Why would the opposition have not rigged the election before, if success would have been assured? The argument/complaint just doesn’t make any sense in the grand scheme of things.
Complaints about election rigging in Guyana by the PPP is nothing new; it spanned several decades. While the British fiddled with the Constitution for the 1964 elections to be held under proportional representation and not first-past-the-post, there was no claim that the elections held in 1964 had been rigged. Nor was there any such claim in relation to the previous elections held in 1953, 1957 and 1961, all won by the PPP. It is alleged by the PPP that the rigging of elections in Guyana began in 1968 and lasted through 1985.With that in mind, it is quite surprising that not much was done by the PPP administration which was in power for 23 years, or has been done by this currently three-year-old government, to erase any possibility of illegal practices in the voting process.It is known that the two major races have been swayed primarily by racial considerations in their voting patterns. It began in the 1950s and remains intense and enduring today, as both races refuse to shed their sometimes blind loyalty to their respective parties. Many people believe that racial voting is undermining our democracy more than the rigging of elections.
In conclusion, it can be safely assumed that despite what we may consider have been meaningful changes in the system, the loser of any election in the future will inevitably claim that unorthodox means were employed by the winner. As they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Was 2011 rigged too?