On Tuesday last, in the hallowed corridors of the High Court, the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) dropped a bombshell by stating that the voters’ list, which expired on April 30, 2019, can be refreshed and used for the elections which should have been held as of March 21, 2019.
He further explained that if a Claims and Objections exercise is used, then the expired list would form the basis of a preliminary one to facilitate that process. That is exactly what the Opposition has been saying since the Government raised concerns after the No-Confidence Motion (NCM) was passed.
The CEO’s statement in question is, therefore, tremendously significant given that he embarked on House-to-House (H2H) Registration to derive a new list which, in reality, can take up to about nine months— a period way beyond the three-month constitutional period for the elections to be held. Noteworthy, his comments were made at a time when the Chief Justice was hearing a case for the halting of the H2H exercise.
The mind is therefore boggled as to why he did not implement that process as against the contentious H2H registration. While he can claim to be executing an order of the past Chairman of GECOM, he could have been more forceful in stating that position from the time the Government launched an attack on the list even before it expired.
GECOM’s legal officer made known her position on the issue— one that differed from the Chairman and the Government-appointed Commissioners’. While she was vilified by Government supporters for simply reiterating the law, she stood her ground and advised that the H2H exercise would be illegal in the context of what has transpired since December 21 last year.
The Government peddled before April 30 that the voters’ list in its current form is unacceptable. The President branded it corrupt, outdated and with 200,000 incorrect entries. Those were the grounds for demanding that GECOM conduct a new H2H process. It was convenient to say the least as was resorting to the Courts— red herrings to avoid the elections following the NCM.
Another bombshell by the CEO was his claim of not advising the President that the list is bloated with 200,000 names. He said the bloated claim is speculative. By him not saying that the list is bloated suggests that it’s not; that’s from the horse’s mouth so to speak. What then did the President use to make that assertion? Again, it reeks of a red herring to continuously delay the elections.
If then, according to the CEO, the current list, even though considered expired, can be used as a basis for a preliminary one to facilitate a Claims and Objections exercise to ensure that the elections be held within the three-month timeframe, and that the list may not be bloated as the President claims, why not immediately stop the H2H?
In doing so, he would not only be heeding the Commission lawyer’s advice, but can commence the Claims and Objections exercise to meet the constitutional deadline, as ordered by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). What the Government has done successfully so far is create distractions to avoid and push the elections to 2020— its seemingly desired timeline.
Given its dismal record in office, the Government believes that with more time, it can effect some level of damage control to appease voters. Buying time with the “currency” of red herring seems its preference. That could possibly explain why, despite the clarity in ruling of the CCJ, the President is still insisting that he must have a role in crafting the list of nominees for the Chairman of GECOM.
By using that self-imposed role, he predicted gridlock in the process of deriving the names of six acceptable nominees. His prediction seems premised on his insistence of having persons of his choice on that list of six. After the CCJ’s ruling, he put forward eight names with most, if not all, affiliated to the Government and the Party he heads— the PNC.
He has kept two in play, which the Leader of the Opposition has rejected. The Constitution is clear; the Leader of the Opposition submits a list of six names not unacceptable to the President from which he chooses one. As it is, some two weeks after the CCJ delivered its consequential orders, a Chairman for GECOM has not been named, no fault of the Leader of the Opposition.
By keeping two names of his choice in play and by predicting gridlock, the President is probably signalling an intention to once again have a Chairman of his liking. He does have a role— to choose one name from six. If, and more than likely he wouldn’t, the Leader of the Opposition does not place the President’s two choices on the official list of six, the said list could be rejected. The President rejected three in the past.
Again, his self-interpreted role is nothing but another skilfully crafted red herring out from the green corner to frustrate the process. The mother of all thus far, is the preposterous mathematical theory the Government used in the Courts to try to invalidate the NCM. The CCJ knew something was fishy. Sadly, the scent lingers.
