Several high-ranking members of The New Movement (TNM) – one of the new political parties that were formed to contest the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections – have resigned.
Among those who have resigned are the party’s Leader Gerald Forde and the party’s Secretary Dr Daniel Josh Kanhai, who is one of the founding members.
Four other executive members have also walked from the helm of the party that is being led by Dr. Asha Kissoon.
Forde, who is the Head of the party’s List of Candidates, was TNM’s Prime Ministerial Candidate at the elections, running alongside Presidential Candidate Dr Kissoon.
In his resignation letter, Forde said the party has become “inept”.
However, Dr Kanhai, who was the face of the party, said his resignation was driven by attempts by individuals to “act selfishly, go rogue, and use dictatorial force to influence my political will.”
He pointed out that while TNM began on pure and moral ideas for the benefit of Guyanese, this has since disappeared.
“It became a camp impregnated with turmoil and coup-ism,” he indicated in his resignation letter.
According to Kanhai, the Executive body had voted on a new way forward for the party, but this was unacceptable to a minority of members, and after weeks of talks to resolve the issue, the majority Executive did not feel comfortable working in an environment that was “toxic… and dictatorial”.
Kanhai has been instrumental in the fight for democracy during the five months after the March elections, when Guyana was locked in a political and electoral impasse caused as a result of blatant attempts to rig the elections.
In fact, he along with another citizen had filed private criminal charges against Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield for electoral fraud.
Lowenfield was slapped with the private charges of conspiracy to commit fraud and breach of trust in public office back in July, and was placed on $450,000 bail.
The charge filed by Kanhai alleged that Lowenfield, between March 5 and June 23, 2020, conspired with person(s) unknown to commit the common law offence of fraud when he submitted his Election Report dated June 23, which included figures that altered the results of the elections.
However, this private charge – along with two others filed by citizen Desmond Morian – were dropped by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) after similar charges were instituted against the CEO by the State.
The Guyana Police Force is currently conducting a probe into the events following the March 2 elections, after receiving “formal complaints” of electoral fraud.
In addition to the CEO, several other staff members of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) are before the courts on electoral fraud charges filed by the Police.
