Dear Editor,
Our dear country is in crisis and unchartered territory! The threats of an unmanageable police state are obviously imminent, as the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) plays a zero-sum game on one side. The fallen David Granger-led APNU/AFC coalition Government plays ignorance to the constitutional obligations on the other. The call for a meeting turned out to be another publicity stunt, which the President and his cohorts would have used as an excuse had the Opposition Leader refused to meet.
It is widely known that President Granger stepped outside the tested and proven Carter constitutionally agreed formula and legitimate public expectancy in his widely condemned unilateral appointment of James Patterson as the Chairman of GECOM.
He now pathetically uses the self-created contamination as a pretence-laden sham, in attempting to camouflage the dictatorial quest for power at all cost and lawless ineptitude to good governance.
The indecency of Patterson seems limitless, as he proves himself daily, a creature of infiltration and imbalance created by and operating under the whims of the David Granger’s PNC/R political party. His decisions as Chairman of GECOM flagrantly contradicts the rules of establishment of the organisation, as he uses his role to advance party paramountcy over the Constitution as the supreme law of our land.
It is indeed most contemptible that the fallen coalition Government Commissioners at GECOM would shamelessly exercise such constitutional defiance of the timeline and actions necessary for the holding of elections since the passing of the No-Confidence Motion. Following the coalition’s failed efforts at achieving delays approved by the Legislature and the Judiciary, their Commissioners at GECOM have taken on the mantra of creating a backdoor solution to the extension of power and fraud.
Led by Vincent Alexander, they are proffering all sorts of illogical excuses about the organisation not being ready, finance needed to conduct elections, and the need to conduct house-to-house registration. Under the ill-fated and deliberate delaying guile of Patterson, it took this cabal more than 50 of the constitutionally prescribed 90 days to falsely inform the public that they needed up to July to be ready. Alexander perhaps hopes to gain forgiveness for his fallout with Granger over his previous challenge for leadership of the PNC/R.
It also took international engagements of foreign diplomats for CEO Lowenfield to pronounce that the List was clean and valid up to the end of April 2019 and that updates through the 10 Continuous Registration, Claims and Objection processes, had served this purpose. I wish to emphasise that the process of validation of the Voters’ List complied with a process according to law, and not under the fantasy of the PNC/R, Alexander and his cohorts.
It is a fact that without actions to savour an extension of the constitutional timeline for the mandatory election, the Government becomes illegal after March 21, 2019. This has damning consequences for the country at large and international partners are likely to invoke sanctions which put Guyana further into the doldrums of underdevelopment by the time corrective actions are accepted.
In context, the myopic view or pretence of the President puts in public view, the illegal business as usual approach of his Government, contrary to the intent of the amendment of to the Constitution to include Sections 106 and 107. Accordingly, through the explanatory memorandum of Bill 14 of 2000, which is instructive to this effect, the drafters sought to ensure that the preservation of the President’s status quo for 90 days with the main purpose of ensuring the effective conduct of free and fair elections within the period.
The situation cannot be more obvious that a legal and clean Voters’ List as pronounced on by the CEO of GECOM’s Secretariat is inconvenient to the fallen APNU/AFC coalition.
The Government Commissioners and its secretariat staff are aware of the basis for its legal mechanism governing, as well as the process implemented towards its continuous update. The Government is aware that its cabal has conducted a number of egregious acts against the people and is now taking steps to try to buy citizens influence. The arguments for house-to-house activities, therefore, merely serves to illegally grant the coalition time at the citizens’ detriment.
Sincerely,
Neil Kumar
