Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 01/Sep 03:06

Good luck, Guyana

TODAY – September 1, 2025 – is election day in Guyana. Stakes are high because Guyana is among the world’s fastest-growing economies and, one suspects, the true zone of contention for the competing groups of American and Venezuelan warships currently stalking the Caribbean Sea in alleged pursuit of drug traffickers. Fans of Caribbean political theatre will recall that the last Guyanese election was very nearly hijacked by an overzealous returning officer armed with a bedsheet and an Excel file of uncertain provenance. If you missed it, back in 2020, the outcome of Guyana’s general election came down to the results in one district: Region 4, which includes Georgetown. As is the case in many elections, including those in TT, representatives of all parties gathered at the count had their own official Statements of Poll, documents tabulating results from individual polling stations. By analysing their SoPs, election observers in each party will often know which way a vote is swinging in advance of any official declaration of results. For example, the whispers that the UNC was heading for something close to a landslide victory in the last TT election started hours before the PNM officially conceded the race. It was a similar situation in Guyana in 2020. Pretty much everyone who had seen SoPs from around Region 4 was certain the vote favoured the PPP, which would mean the country was looking at a change in government. Then, in a scene that reads like a rejected plot idea for a new Austin Powers movie, the returning officer for Region 4 announced results that were not supported by SoPs but instead were backed by the blurry projection of some Excel tabulations onto what appeared to be an old bedsheet. And guess what? Those results were exactly as required for the government of the day to remain in power. Bemused observers were told election officials had found a way to detect and eliminate fraudulent votes included in the SoPs, and the Excel numbers were the true results. To this day, no one has delivered a convincing account of exactly what that methodology was or why it should be accepted over the official electoral accounting. Projecting some numbers onto household linens shouldn’t be nearly enough effort to swindle control of a major oil-producing economy, but the bizarre tactic (and some convoluted legal arguments) almost paid off. Courts solemnly heard a debate that never seriously progressed beyond one side presenting every available Statement of Poll in the country and the other claiming their bedsheet-borne statistics were the only authentic record of the Guyanese people’s will. For months, many of the Caribbean’s finest legal minds were employed to argue both sides of a case pivoting on whether it was acceptable for some guy to invalidate election results with a blanket and a spreadsheet. The lawyers at least had the consolation that their hours were billable. For the rest of us – well, Mia Mottley gave a tactful summary on behalf of the region, “Regrettably, we have seen a level of gamesmanship that has left much to be desired and has definitely not portrayed our Caribbean region in the best light.” The ultimate indignity came when the matter was resolved (in favour of official results over the spreadsheets-on-bedsheets analysis) by the intervention of the US government. The threat of sanctions against those perceived to be hijacking Guyana’s electoral processes finally put an end to the shenanigans. Given that it was very nearly cheated out of its latest term in office, no surprise that the current Guyana government has made some effort to at least make it harder for anyone to derail an election with some fanciful numbers and a high thread count. Less comforting is the news from the Carter Center that “the majority of the recommendations made by The Carter Center and other international observers following the 2020 election remain unaddressed.” Guyanese elections have long been plagued by chicanery and manipulation, both real and imagined. The present contest has been energised by the presidential candidacy of Azruddin Mohamed, a billionaire mining magnate turned populist politician, who happens to also be under US sanction while accused of a litany of transgressions ranging from gold smuggling to tax evasion. Consider it unlikely (his newly created political party would need to win the largest share of votes in the election) but not impossible that Mr Mohamed is the next Guyana president. Whoever wins today’s election, here’s hoping the results are declared quickly and without intervention from the contents of a laundry hamper. The post Good luck, Guyana appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.