Issues such as the Value Added Tax (VAT) and the Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2007 are deliberately being used by the current administration to overshadow the "issue of a parliamentary seat for the JFAP (Justice For All Party)," the party has said.
In an open letter to US Ambassador David Robinson, British High Commissioner William Fraser-Wheeler, Canadian High Commissioner Charles Court and the international community of observers thanking them for meeting with representatives of the JFAP over the past five weeks, the party said that its approach to them on the parliamentary seat issue was based on the significant technical and financial contributions given to the Guyana Elections Commis-sion (GECOM) to ensure the promotion of democracy.
The JFAP letter dated January 25, 2007 reiterated that the claim was based on the findings of Haslyn Parris, a former commissioner of GECOM. In an analysis of the 2006 General and Regional Elections, Parris found that the JFAP had won a parliamentary seat contrary to the results issued by GECOM.
The letter, signed by party leader Chandra Narine Sharma and executive members Berkeley Houston and Ravindra Kishore, said their focus at the meeting was to make certain that Guyanese and the international community were satisfied with the moral and financial accountability of those funds given the objectives they symbolise and the integrity they must seek to demand in the face of challenges to the process.
The JFAP said they were also seeking a way for the international observers to revisit and to correct the results where necessary within the broad confines of the agreement without resort to political interference or to the option of an election petition. The party said that "Thankfully, the agreement signed between the government, GECOM and the international observer community, very sensibly, made provisions for such disputes and differences of opinions to be amicably settled outside of a courtroom. Please refer to Articles XII and XIII of the agreement signed by the OAS (Organisation of American States)."
According to the JFAP, the OAS report "has not completed its findings on the final aspect of the process which deals with the allocation of seats."
The JFAP noted, too, that the Electoral Assistance Bureau (EAB) has revisited the results issued by GECOM and has since found several inaccuracies. The EAB has delayed its final report, pending the additional audit of GECOM figures.
The party said that, "Longstanding and diehard attitudes of indifference to the just desserts of minority groups is a monstrous mindset still nurtured by major institutions in Guyana, which should know better in terms of action since their rhetoric preaches virtue while their silence and inaction stand in stark condemnation of their hypocrisy."