Your equal-opportunity Eyewitness would really like to give as much coverage to our Opposition as he does to the Government – since he verily believes (like that, eh??) the vibrancy of both of them is critical for better governance of our country. And for our prosperity – since, at long last, we’re getting the wherewithal to fund our development. But the Opposition, PNC and AFC, seem to be operating underground or something, because days go by without your Eyewitness hearing anything from them. That is not the best tactic for any entity that depends on the public voting for it in elections – based on what they know about that entity!!
If a political party does all sorts of activities but no one hears about them, does that political party exist??
And then when your Eyewitness finally did get a report about a PNC activity last weekend, it was sadly so irrelevant to the people’s concerns that he’s left wondering where’s the PNC (political) mojo!!
The meeting was at Calcutta in Mahaicony, which, notwithstanding its name, is an African-dominated village, and as such was happy hunting ground for leader Aubrey Norton. Now, Calcutta is a noticeably prosperous farming community, with poultry, rice and cash crops having been developed under the PPP’s push in this sector. The roads have been rehabilitated and asphalted, and several entertainment haunts along the roadway are all doing brisk business!! So, you’d think Norton would’ve taken the opportunity to elaborate on his party’s plans in regard to agriculture, which would presumably take Calcutta and its residents to higher economic heights. This especially when the PNC leader had promised he’d be campaigning heavily in “PPP strongholds”, which in that neck of the woods are also overwhelmingly agriculture-based.
But what did Norton emphasise? The tired trope being hammered to death since 2020, when the PNC tried unsuccessfully to rig the elections: that the PPP was planning to rig the 2025 elections!! Taking a slight shift from pushing the (unconstitutional) “cleaning of the bloated list”, Norton said his party scrutineers would be on the lookout for Venezuelans, whom he claimed the PPP was bringing in to vote.
Norton thundered: “Let we tell them. When we put we polling officers in the polling station and they can’t talk proper English: ‘bam-bam’!!” So, Norton’s now saying the PNC gonna unilaterally impose an “English literacy test” for voting – since the persons would’ve already presented their Guyana ID Cards!!
But that begs the question as to what the PNC polling agents were doing in the 2020 elections, since the Party’s been insisting that the PPP had people voting with furriners’ ID cards!!
The PNC really need to get on showing they can do better than the PPP – not only in rigging!!
…on political parties’ status
Political parties are one of our oldest institutions, formed as we clawed our way out of slavery and indentureship – with ARF Webber launching the Popular Party, the first political party in the British West Indies, in the 1920s. But believe it or not, political parties have no legal basis for their existence, and, by convention, have been operating under the Companies Act, even though they’re not actually businesses and don’t register as such. At start of the millennium, Britain passed the “Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000”, that sets out how political parties are to deal with registration and finances, and make provisions about donations and loans etc.
Now, one PNC member has applied to the High Court to rule that “political parties’ selection of candidates constitutes state action” – and as such, must attract strict constitutional scrutiny on their activities.
The Government says it’s satisfied with the status quo of political parties being quasi-corporations. Shouldn’t they follow Britain’s lead – as others such as Kenya have done??
…at Mad Maduro
From the rhetoric of the incoming Trump Administration, it’s likely that sanctions would be reimposed on Venezuelan oil. That would obviously tighten supplies and lead to higher prices from next year. Go Trump!! Sock it to Mad Maduro!!
