Khemraj Ramjattan, the former Minister of National Security, Friday claimed that Russian nationals deported were speaking to Dr. Bharat Jagdeo in their language (Russian) during the March 2020 elections saga.
Dr. Jagdeo, Guyana’s current Vice President and General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party, was serving as Opposition Leader in 2020.
Jagdeo and the PPP led the charge to ensure that the 2020 elections were not derailed by the then APNU+ AFC administration. At that time, however, there were allegations raised by the AFC that Russians were meddling in the elections. Those allegations have never been proven.
Ramjattan, who was also the APNU+AFC coalition candidate for Prime Minister, said Friday that there were four Russians speaking to Jagdeo in 2020.
The AFC member, reflecting on what he said were engagements with Jagdeo and four unidentified Russians claimed that the discussions centered on “certain things rather suspect that had to do with elections.” He said Jagdeo and the Russians were not speaking in English but in Russian.
AFC leader Nigel Hughes was questioned about this situation at an AFC presser on Friday. He, however, deferred to Ramjattan who was also at the presser.
He insinuated that members of the Guyana Police Force were able to understand the Russian language that was allegedly being spoken.
Furthermore, Ramjattan opined that those discussions may have involved national security issues and the elections. So the top brass of the Guyana Police Force took an interest in those apparent discussions. Since these beliefs may have been hard to prove, Ramjattan said that he suggested those nationals be deported.
“… I said deport them if they are illegally in Guyana and so they were deported,” he said at a party press conference.
Ramjattan also that the names of these nationals are in a report presented to Home Affairs Minister, Robeson Benn. He indicated that he would try to find the report compiled, as he may still have some information in his possession.
Onlookers are still puzzled about accusations of election interference and hacking since Guyana’s elections are conducted via pencil and paper; it is not a computerised process. And each party gets their own Statements of Poll (SOPs) to tabulate their results.
Still, Ramjattan said, “Don’t give the impression that we mek up story” which is believed to be the case by many.
