AU ee eT ave a

JAGAN

Election fraud in Guyana

By CHEDDI JAGAN

To the reasonable and realistic
demands of the National Libera-

‘tion Front of South Vietnam, the
response of the Thieu regime and
the Nixon administration has
been most unsatisfactory.

The National Liberation Front
in its 10 point demand has call-
ed for the unconditional with-
drawal of all U.S. troops, for a
coalition government of ll
peace-loving, patriotic and neu-
tral forces, for a Constituent As-
sembly and fair elections.

The Thieu regime rejects the
legitimate demand for a coali-
tion government and proposes
instead a mixed elections com-
mission and international super-
vision of elections.

These proposals are fraught
with great danger. Neither inter-
national supervision nor an Elec-
tions Commission prevented
fraudulent elections in Guyana
during the past five years.

In December 1964, the Labor
Government of Great Britain
headed by Harold Wilson, sent
a Commonwealth Team of Ob-
servers to observe the December
1964 general election in the then
British Guiana. But this was
only. to cover up a fraud which .
had already been committed.

To defeat the People’s Pro-
gressive Party (PPP) and re-
move it from office, the Macmil-
lan and Home governments, un-
der pressure from the Kennedy
administration, had changed our

. traditional electoral system. Ha-

rold Wilson, as leader of the op-
position, in a foreign affairs de-
bate in mid-1964 had referred to
this as “‘a fiddled constitutional
arrangement,” but refused, when
in government, also as a result
of U.S. pressure, to reverse the
decision.

However, the British and Am-
erican governments were able
to tell the world that free and
fair elections had been carried
out. Unpublicized was the fact
that had the electoral system
not been changed,’the PPP would
have won in 1964 by the same
majority that put the Party in of-
fice in 1961. Thus, under inter-
national supervision, the PPP
was fraudulently ousted from
the government.

ELECTIONS COMMISSION

At the December 1968 elec-
tions in Guyana, fraud was far
more extensive despite the ex-
istance of an Elections Commis-
sion. Through ballot box tam-
pering, large scale voting by
proxy and fabricated voters lists,
the U.S.-backed People’s Nation-
al Congress “polled” 50.4 per-
cent of the votes cast in Guyana
and 55.6 percent of the local and
overseas votes (as compared
with only 40 percent at the 1954
British supervised elections) .

The Elections Commission
was bypassed particularly in the
key question of the compilation
of the voters list. This was done
by handpicked personnel under
the control of the Ministry of
Home Affairs, and under the
supervision of the American
Shoup Registration Systems In-
ternational, allegedly a C.I.A.-
front organization which accord-
ing to Paul L. Montgomery in
the New York Times (Decem-
ber 17, 1967) “has previously
performed national registration
tabulations in Trinidad, Jamaica
and Venezuela. D. E: McFeely,
the concern’s resident manager,

3 2

said in an interview that he also
(understood) that the company
had helped with registration Jast
year in South Vietnam.

ricated voters list with names
of dead, under-age and non-
existent persons, reminiscent of
Gogol’s “Dead Souls.”

electoral history Guyanese liv-
ing Overseas were allowed to
vote. By manipulation, the PNC
secured 94 percent of the over-
seas votes.

“World in Action” (January 6,
1939), only 4,700 of the 11,750
registered “voters’ in the United
States, and 13,050 of the 44,300
registered in the United King-
dom were genuine.

was also padded. At 299,248, the
overall increase was 21 percent
in the 4-year period, 1964 to
1968, as compared with a 19 per-
cent increase in the ll-year pe-
riod, 1953 to 1964. Besides, there
- were uneven increases in differ-
ent parts of the country. In-
creases in the number of regis-
tered voters were small in the
PPP areas of strength — 9 per-
cent for one and 10 per cent for
six other districts, yet large in
the PNC’s strongholds—109 per-
cent, 58 percent and 49 percent
for Mackenzie, Mazaruni-Potaro
and Abary districts respectively.
For the Abary district, sub-dis-
tricts with strong PPP increases
by only 5 percent to 6 percent
as compared with 50 percent to

second (“The Making of a Prime
Minister”) of its two half hour
exposes on the fraudulent elec-
tion observed. “It is my firm
conclusion that the election in-
side Guyana was neither free
nor fair.”

And Peter d’Aguiar, the leader
of the anti-communist United
Force, the junior partner in the
U.S. puppet coalition govern-
ment (1964-1968) bitterly stated
in the same film: “To call it an
election is to give it a name it
does not deserve; it was a
seizure of power by fraud.” ~

CHANGED METHODS

The U.S. imperialists, their
satellites and puppets must not
be allowed to fool world public
opinion about their so-called
reasonableness.

The result was a totally fab-

For the first time in Guyana’s

According to Granada TV

Inside Guyana, the voters list

Thieu regime.

hands of the U.S. puppets.

ence table.

100 percent increases in PNC
supported sub-districts.

There was also widespread
tampering with the ballot boxes.
In one ballot box in the Pomer-
oon District, four parcels of bal-
lot papers bound with rubber
bands were found inside. In oth-
er boxes, the number of ballots
did not tally with the number
recorded at the end of polling.
In one particular PNC strong-
hold, Buxton Village, 101 per-
cent of t!.: registered voters cast
ballots!

This tampering was facilitat-
ed by changing the method of
counting the ballots in each of
the electoral districts to only
three centres. Ballot boxes were
transported over long distances
and PPP representatives were
prevented from observing the
movement of the boxes.

Little wonder that the Inves-
tigations Editor of the Granada
Television Company Ltd. U.K.,
Mr. Gus Macdonald, in the

sinister

ence.” This is

and democracy.

Saigon puppet regime or

patriotic forces.

___. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 19, 1969—PAGE 10

ST. LEONARD»

Wrong target

tion of ultra-nationalism in St.
Léonard on the Island of Mon-
treal was a betrayal of Quebec’s
people, and first of all of its
workers, as surely as the Tru-
deau policy of “One Canada —
One Nation” represents disaster
for the future of Canada as one
country.

scolaire (LIS, or League for

mand that French be the only

The provisional revolutionary
government was correct in de-
nouncing the proposals of the
Experience in
Guyana proves that there can
be no free and fair election once
the election machinery is in the

The Thieu-Ky puppet regime
is fighting for its political life.
And the U.S. imperialists have
not given up their intentions of
holding South Vietnam. Only
their methods, not their aims,
have changed. What they have
failed to win in the battlefield,
they hope to win at the confer-

The Saigon regime’s an-
nouncement that the NLF but
not the communists can take
part in the election is another
manoeuvre aimed at
splitting the revolutionary move-
ment. The communists are to be
excluded on the ground that
“they preach and practice viol-
ludicrous. In
Guyana, It was the colonialists
and imperialists who consist-
ently over the past 25 years
practised violence and fraud it
was the Marxists who upheld
the banner of peace, freedom

World public opinion must
join the NLF in denouncing the
jatest fraudulent proposals of
the U.S. imperialists and their
. puppets. International supervi-
sion and elections commission
will not guarantee free and fair
elections. The crucial issue in
Vietnam today is not elections
but who will control the ma-
chinery of the elections, the

broad coalition government of

By MEL DOIG
The September 10 demonstra-

The Ligue pour lintégration
School Integration) in its de-

language of instruction in Que-
bec is serving only the cause of
reaction. The chauvinistic ad-
vocates of unilingualism, led by
LIS president Raymond Lemi-
eux, strive to make of the long-
existing language problem of
Quebec the main issue and the
main content of the struggle for
the rights of the French-Cana-
dian nation in Quebec.

Who else is guilty of that
kind of deception? None other
than the Prime Minister of Can-
ada and his Liberal government!
They are perpetrating the colos-
sal fraud that equal access to
the French and English languag-
es in areas of federal jurisdiction
is at once the answer to the
constitutional crisis of Canada,
and proof that our country con-’
sists of one instead of two na-
tions.

The “one-language” ultra-na-
tionalists in Quebec today are
serving the interests of monopo-
ly, of the Establishment, as
certainly as the Ottawa “one-
nation” proponents.

The LIS is aiding reaction and
endangering the cause of the
democratic forces of Quebec in
yet another way. For Lemieux,
the main spokesman, is now at-
tempting to pose in the role of
defender of the democratic right
of public assembly. He claims
this role by having defied a St.
Leonard police order to use a
route for the Sept. 10 demon-
stration other than the one that
took more than 1,000 of his fol-
lowers roaring into the Italian-
Canadian section of St. Leonard.
(There the parents are asking to
enjoy the same rights as the Eng-
lish-speaking minority in Quebec,
the right to choose the language
of education.)

How the Union Nationale gov-
ernment must be gloating! With-
in days of the announcement by
the Minister of Justice of “spe-
cial police measures” of the na-
ture of a police state, to have
Lemieux present himself as the
defender of democracy!

The “law and order” gang of
politicians in Quebec who are
out to smash labor and the peo-
ple’s resistance to monopoly’s
“anti-inflation” campaign could
have asked for no better ally
than Lemieux. For the ‘defender
of democratic rights” in Quebec
today is none other than the

leader of the LIS whose slogans
on Sept. 10 were: “French
schooling means a Free Que-
bec,” “We want no English
Wops,” and “French language

schooling, or get out of Que-

bec.”

That he who makes a mock-
ery of democracy should claim
to champion it! This is Lemieux’
hypocrisy.

The LIS includes many ele-
ments of French-Canadian na-
tionalists. Some are misguided

people who hav
lingualism and
cratic policies 0
against minorities in an 4
to compensate for
of privileges exercl
Anglo-Canadian
Quebec. ys!

There are others. The ti
supported by the Front by,
ration Populaire (know?
FLP). voll
ary” party that claims
for an independent,
Quebec is led by Ma
drée Ferretti. She 5”
platform with.
a meeting in Jerome
school in St. Leona
tember 3, one week
demonstration.

and advocate of unil
for Quebec, Mme.
dressing
“We were conqueré!
force of arms by
and all the English oe
of our conquerors ate 4}
mies. They must be fous

those who come as
to Canada and in P@
Quebec and who
similated to the E
ity, which conquere
scorned us ever since

ple to be fought Like
lish. And the immigt qu
: ith

want to integrate
society, let them
the language of Q
others have no_ rights,
duty -is to fight the™

mocratic forces of 2
to overcome not °
tionalistic,
sitions of essentially
geois movements
like the LIS and ¥* ie
mieux and Ferrettl. a)
also confronted by *
ment of monopoly
Nationale governmen Ai
‘bec, whose Minister

tion, Mr. Cardinal
the decision of the
School Board. That

brief, calls for ee
language as the 1ané
struction.

the offer of fift
day of teaching ©
secondary languab®
of school children f@

ter has offered 2
to St. Leonard’s
dian Catholic pay fi
may have a priv i
teaching in the English
with 80 percent
covered by the
“This is less than
writes the editor o
Le Devoir, “but it
none at all.”
dian and English-§
ority in St. Leona,
treal have rejecté
cipled offer.

e chosen
its antide
¢ discrimin

genera
sed bY |
minority

This ‘ultra -te

rd of"
pefore ”

dante
ingl”
Ferrell Fi
ecting oa !

A long-time “indépe

that mi

gfe

sre
rtic

ngs

Jear :
bees)
Queb: af

Ss

The working peo? ebee

nly a
anti-dem' pet f

an
FLP:

; eofte®
It is hoped to seit

li
f By

The Quebec Edue

The oe
ao
rd rf

é leew

The language isso bY
can split the forc®” acy
labor and democl™, §
they move to unit jot
of a principled pos icf
position, as “a den que
tion to the langua® ced
Quebec,” was adv in St
leaflet distributed an
ard by the Commun tif
Quebec on the eve a
tember 10 demons