Making…

…their own laws
In their ongoing campaign to ensure the Guyanese public gets a thorough grounding into the intricacies and minutiae of constitutional, procedural and civil law, the PNC has now decided to challenge Chairwoman Claudette’s dictum that “He who asserts must prove”. This is part of the law of evidence, and deals with who has the “burden of proof” in any matter brought before the courts. Meaning that, say, you haul me to the courts alleging that I stole your fowlcock, then the law demands that you offer proof that I did in fact purloin the said avian creature. Innocent until PROVEN guilty, and all that.
But, yesterday, a funny thing happened on the way to the ACCC, where representatives of the parties and GECOM Commissioners amble over to give their take on the day’s proceedings, or throw in a bombshell or two. PNC Commissioner Vincent Alexander decided to indulge in the latter diversion.
He announced that his party had submitted some 600 objections to GECOM on folks who’d allegedly (they, of course, insisted it was a fact!!) voted even though they were out of the country!! But hadn’t it been made clear, over the years since 1992, that such allegations had to be brought before a court in an elections petition for investigation? Hadn’t the PNC brought such a petition after the 1997 elections; which the now GECOM Chair, Claudette Singh, then sitting on the Bench, had thrown out??
Now, don’t get confused…the PNC had raised another technicality about ID cards being required to vote, even though they’d agreed to it in Parliament, and Claudette had ruled for them on that ground.
So how could GECOM now arrogate to itself a power the Constitution gave to the Courts in Article 163?? Not to worry, this is the PNC we’re dealing with!! Alexander referred to Regulation 40 of the National Registration Act (NRA) as the authority by which GECOM could ask the Commissioner of Registration (COR) to ask the Chief Immigration Officer (CIO) for the immigration records. Problem is, the NRA has only 27 sections!! We know that, back in the day, the PNC had flown its flag over the Appellate Court, so maybe they’re now flying it over Parliament Buildings so they can unilaterally create whatever laws they desire??
Even though PPP Commissioner Gunraj denied that the Elections Commission had made any such decision, your Eyewitness has no doubt that either the Chair or the CEO had in fact done so. As he’d predicted, the PNC will have its way, and to hell with the law of the land.

…common cause
Your Eyewitness continues to be amazed at the circling of the wagons in the African-Guyanese intelligentsia to protect David Granger and his PNC’s rigging. The extreme Marxist Clive Thomas had long made his loyalties known. He didn’t even utter a squeak when David Granger shuttered the 4 sugar estates, even though the COI he had chaired proposed otherwise. On the other end of the spectrum, there was the arch-capitalist Eric Philips, who was even co-opted into Thomas’s SARA to garnish the wealth that the PPP had been accused of pilfering.
In the left of centre are the Black Nationalists such as David Hinds, Lincoln Lewis and Ogunseye; and over in the middle are the professorial types such as George Danns and Havelock Brewster. Ivelaw Griffith was always there as an ole YSM type. Even “moderates” like Mark Kirton are now joined at the hip to extremists like Mark Benschop and Rickford Burke.
Imagine, all these “educated” men can actually look at people and say that Mingo didn’t commit fraud at Ashmin’s!!
There’s none so blind…

…Burnham spin
In his classic speech, “People’s power, no dictator”, Walter Rodney compared PNC riggers to the “Three Card” hustlers who boasted, “The more you watch, the less you see!”
Under Granger, they couldn’t even execute a sleight of hand!!