Sharma’s appeal yesterday came in the form of an ‘Open Letter’ to the United States Ambassador, and carbon-copied (cc) to the British High Commissioner, the European Union, the Canadian High Commissioner, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the United Nations Observer Agency, the Guyana Human Rights Association, the Electoral Assistance Bureau, the Private Sector Commission and the media.

Sharma, in his letter said “many are simply shocked that even in the face of the U.S.A., Britain and Canada, which are all outstanding proponents of freedom and democracy…the elections were allowed to be touted as ‘free and fair’, while the government ‘monopoly’ on radio and television frequencies was firmly in place.”

“It is amazing to a great number of ordinary citizens of Guyana how the large number of obviously well qualified members of the many watchdog and monitoring agencies, donor organisations and the diplomatic community simply sat around and allowed Guyanese to be bludgeoned, by government and GECOM, into silence as these two giants sought to justify their arithmetical ‘errors’,” Sharma asserted.

“We also wish to chide the Secretary General of the Commonwealth Secretariat and call upon him to review the premature handing out of accolades to the Chairman of GECOM, for a ‘job well done’, given the fact that the elections consisted of irreversible flaws as described by commissioner Haslyn Parris; upon which flaws his resignation from GECOM was premised and subsequently justified and validated as the country witnessed and continue to witness a series of legal and moral blunders experienced by the Elections Commission and government as part of the continuing fallout resulting from the very flaws,” the JFAP Leader contended.

This, he said, “raises the question of how really concerned are these nations for the will of the people of Guyana given the inequality of access to the messages of all the parties and now a lack of transparency with respect to the true expression of the people’s will resulting from their votes cast on August 28, 2006”, he contended.

He claimed that despite the much reduced figure given to his party, the registered Electoral Formula of GECOM, when professionally applied, still allocated a parliamentary seat to the JFAP.