Govt’s acts of voter suppression continue

…closing entry from Suriname Feb 29-March 9

A communication from Chairperson of the People’s National Congress (PNC) in her role as Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence to Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan reveals that she made a request which was granted that could lead to voter suppression.
Eleven days ago, February 18, she claimed that “Given the increase in the number of [Coronavirus] cases in Germany and France, I am requesting that the Backtrack Entry to travellers from Suriname be closed during the period February 29 through March 7, 2020.”
The New York Times had reported, “With 42 confirmed cases across the [European] continent, the coronavirus outbreak is far less serious in Europe than it is in China, where more than 2000 people have died and the fight to contain the virus has taken on the trappings of a wartime campaign.” The gist of the report was that there were more concerns about stigmatisation from the outbreak rather than an increase in numbers of infected persons.
But even if there were concerns, the question that has been asked by persons who had information on the response by Minister Ramjattan to accede to Lawrence’s request was why was the closure made effective eleven days later – just two days before the elections scheduled for March 2? Did Minister Lawrence expect a flood of German and French citizens to cross over from Suriname bringing the Coronavirus with them specifically only from today?
However, many Guyanese residents in Suriname, most of them from Berbice, were returning to vote in the elections since it had been authoritatively declared that they still retained their inalienable right to vote, once they had been registered in the past and their names were on the Official List of Electors. For the same reason, there have been planeloads of citizens from New York and Toronto returning for the same purpose.