Political parties must commit to democracy, obedience to the Constitution

Dear Editor,
There is widespread national concern about our current political situation and the posture of political parties on observing the rule of law and the Constitution, and the fear about whether the coming national and regional elections will be fair and free of rigging, given the history of the PNC and elections between 1968 and 1990.
Political parties, contesting these elections are challenged to declare publicly in their manifestos, despite their conduct in the past, a re-commitment to democracy, the rule of law, obedience in conduct, behaviour and practice to the Constitution, and free and fair elections. These must be clearly stated, prominently in each party’s manifesto, and addressed publicly by each party leader, and each candidate on the party’s list of candidates, on all campaign speeches. What sanctions will the party Leader and party apply to any supporter who may violate these principles, and attempt to rig or cheat on the national and regional elections in any way?
The dual citizens, who contested and allocated seats in the National Assembly for more than two decades, glaringly violated the Constitution of Guyana with impunity. This could only have happened with the deliberate collusion among the PPP, PNC, AFC, and the WPA to turn a blind eye to their participation, and consequently violated the Constitution. There cannot be any excusable excuse from all the political leaders, and political parties, and the dual citizens for this and other constitutional violations. They cannot claim ignorance of the requirements of the Constitution; they subverted the Constitution. These political leaders and dual citizens must at least apologise publicly to the nation to be redeemed and become “fit and proper” for public office.
Similarly, the GECOM Secretariat is in violation of the Constitution in fooling the population of its readiness to conduct the elections. So is President Granger and his Government by buying time through their political games to hold on to political office beyond its constitutional life as of September 18, 2019. It is widely known that the posture of the leadership of the APNU/AFC Government is in, not so subtle collusion, with its GECOM Commissioners to do the APNU’s and Granger’s bidding to enable the regime to linger as long as possible in Government.

With thanks,
Joshua Singh