Democracy died the day the coalition took Office

Dear Editor,
I will not reiterate the obvious that the Chairman of GECOM was unilaterally appointed by the President to fulfil the exact role he is now advancing and that is to do the biddings of the PNC. He is not in the least impartial and his protracted illness has done nothing to change this perception. The coalition has pronounced that GECOM is not ready for General Elections in 90 days and I am sure that the Chairman will echo this stance.
More than a month has elapsed since the no-confidence motion was passed and after a meeting with Granger and Jagdeo and the refusal of Lowenfield to meet with the Chief Whips, there is still no clear course ahead. Article 106 mandates that General and Regional Elections be held 90 days after the Government is defeated and this does not depend on any outcomes from the Court. The President must appoint a date for Elections to be held and GECOM must comply since it is a Constitutional directive.
Let us look at what our Constitution says. Article 162 (b) states that the Commission, “shall issue such instructions and take such action as appear to it necessary or expedient to ensure impartiality, fairness and compliance with the provisions of this Constitution or of any Act of Parliament on the part of persons exercising powers or performing duties connected with or relating to the matters aforesaid”. GECOM will not “ensure impartiality, fairness and compliance” with the Supreme Law of the land if it fails to hold Elections in the stipulated time. It will breach the Constitution.
Moreover, there is no excuse that GECOM must follow this mandate and Article 162 (2) cannot be invoked since GECOM only held LGE on November 12 last year and the Electoral list duly expires on April 30, 2019. The 90 days to call Elections expires on March 21, more than a month before this expiration date of the List. The List was certified on October 30 and has a validity of six months. It is submitted that there is no excuse to postpone the General and Regional Elections which is constitutionally due on March21. Guyanese expects that notwithstanding the decisions of the Court on the matter, GECOM must enhance its preparedness. This is not happening!
What is conclusive is the fact that after a long 5-hour meeting with the GECOM Commissioners, no work plan was submitted and no date was given for such a submission. There is no intention to hold an election any time soon. It is now publicly acceptable that GECOM’s malingering is simply to postpone the Elections until such time that the rigging machinery of the PNC can be activated. I am sure they want to include the number of aliens now domiciled in the country since it is alleged that Haitians are issued with birth certificates. These will definitely appear on the new list. Moreover, the dead persons on the lists and those who have migrated cannot vote so there is no reason for house-to-house registration to sanitise the lists when the same list was used just over 2 months ago for the LGE.
I will agree with the PPP’s Commissioners that General Election is feasible within the Constitutional time frame and not the 180 days proposed by the coalition’s Commissioners. However, since the GECOM Chairman is not in the least impartial and fair we can expect that in any voting scenario, the PNC will emerge triumphant.
Democracy died the day the coalition took Office.

Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf
RDC Councillor
Region Six