…to preempt the new Chair
Just when you thought the PNC and their myrmidons couldn’t sink any lower in their frenetic rampage to head off their imminent departure, up they come with one more attempt to subvert GECOM. And this on the afternoon of the same day the new Chair was sworn in after caretaker Granger’s sustained attacks on the integrity of that key democratic institution!! At 4pm, an application was filed on behalf of GECOM with the High Court, pleading that the Chief Justice recuse herself from hearings on the case that Christopher Ram had brought to have GECOM discontinue the ongoing controversial H2H registration exercise.
The problem is, with no Chair of GECOM in place until 10 am in the morning, and the brand new incumbent not even hunkering down with her Commissioners, who the heck authorised the lawyer Stanley Marcus – of CCJ ignominy!! – to file the application?? Well seems that GECOM CEO Keith Lowenfield took it upon himself to increase his powers on his lonesome to encompass the entirety of GECOM!! Lowenfield was clearly doing a Louis XIV, who’d declared “I am the state!” He was GECOM!!
But over the past year, we’ve all been enlightened about the particulars of the Constitution defining the roles of State and governmental bodies, haven’t we?? So what does it say about “GECOM”?? Good thing, in a land where the PNC refined rigging into high art, this wasn’t left to chance. Art 161 (1) declares unambiguously: There shall be an Elections Commission of Guyana consisting of a Chairman… (and) six members – three appointed by the President and three appointed upon the advice of the OL. And, like Bugs Bunny used to say, “That’s all folks!!”
Now where in the hell does it mention any CEO as even a PART of the Commission? The latter is just someone in charge of the Secretariat, which executes the policies of the Commission! And Lowenfield shouldn’t be confused: didn’t he just say he’s just following orders from ex-Chairman Patterson to embark on the H2H!! Even though he believes a claims and objections exercise would be just as effective but light years faster, he gotta obey??
So what’s going on here, dear reader? Is Lowenfield doing this on his lonesome or is taking orders from folks who want to test the new Chair Madam Claudette Singh? This lowdown move is redolent with all the nastiness that’s transpired since Dec 21, 2018, after Granger’s initial acceptance of the NCM. He and his handlers want to hand the new Chair a fait accompli…to see if she’ll go along.
We heard she’s an “Iron Lady”. Let’s see if that’s brittle cast iron or forged steel!!
…Emancipation and Gerry
The PSC rallied to the defence of its Head Gerry Gouveia against the charge by the Government GECOM Commissioner Desmond Trotman that – in accusing GECOM CEO Keith Lowenfield of exceeding his remit to embark on H2H registration – Gouveia sounded like one of his “massa ancestors” during slavery, counting the lashes he was inflicting on a slave. Your Eyewitness’ first reaction was “Really!?”
But with Emancipation Day just a day away, he’s wondering whether even though slavery ended 171 years ago, the memory of slavery is still so fresh in the minds of some of us that when a fellow Guyanese – who’s not even descended from Dutch or British planters – speaks his mind on a subject that has nothing to do with race, such a bitter reaction is triggered. So what are folks like Gerry, of Portuguese descent, who were brought here even before slavery was ended and now have to face such harsh words, to THINK?
Because of his skin colour, don’t they have the right to speak their mind?
…to the bottom
Basil Williams is at it again with his frivolous claims. This time he’s claiming Ram’s petition to halt H2H is an “abuse of process” and should be thrown out.
As if his “33 not greater than 32” claim wasn’t!!
