Dear Editor,
The great fall of this coalition Government can be likened to the Humpty Dumpty’s fall: “…All the King’s horses and all the King’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again”. Or, in the case of the coalition, not all the trickeries, deceit, false promises and constitutional violations can put it together again!
Since the unilateral and legally flawed appointment of Mr Patterson as the GECOM’s Chairman by Granger and his coalition advisors in October 2017, it became crystal clear that the coalition’s ambition is to stay in power at any and all costs, blatantly disregarding the rule of law and the Constitution by setting the necessary foundation for its trademark rigging. This became more revealing after the successful passing of the historical No-Confidence Motion on December 21, 2018.
The coalition had never expected that their term in office will be abruptly curtailed on that night, as is evidenced by the premature bragging by Amna Ally to ‘bring it on’ before that fateful night, which brought the curtains down on the most corrupted Government ever. Hence, there was no haste to install the remaining rigging machinery. They had assumed that it will be until late 2020. Moreover, they never expected that the NCM would be successful. They thought that Jagdeo was bluffing! Well, they have since realised that this man does not indulge in idle pastimes.
This lustful intention to remain in power indefinitely became more revealing after the NCM, having accepted defeat the very day they then came up with ‘Hughes absolute 34’ to start the delaying tactics even though they knew that given our Constitution, 33 is the majority once all the members of the National Assembly are present and voted. Time is of essence to survive and they began fabricating a plethora of nonsensical and spurious legal challenges to buy that time. They wasted taxpayers’ dollars they ripped off with their inconsequential journey from the High Court to the Appeal Court and thence to the CCJ for the final resting place. The coalition thoroughly embarrassed itself internationally and became a laughing stock to the world after the CCJ passed a comprehensive judgement upholding the validity of the NCM, the vote of Charrandas Persaud, and invalidated the unilateral appointment of Patterson. The CCJ rejected each and every argument put forward by the coalition. It was a unanimous decision which should have created no further doubt and ambiguity in the minds of the coalition actors and brought acceptance. Unfortunately, they continued their deliberate obfuscation of the simple facts in their quest to remain in power.
In the meantime, the coalition had activated their Plan B. Realising that the CCJ’s decisions would not be in their favour, they began a protest against themselves to agitate for House-to-House voter’s registration. Even though GECOM’s legal officer advised against such a move and accepted the validity of the current Official List of Electors, which can be refreshed by claims and objections. It must be noted that just before Patterson resigned, he did follow the coalition’s instructions and initiated the House-to-House registration as its final delay tactic. He ensured that the coalition got value for money spent on him.
But they now have another ploy at hand! Even though the CCJ’s consequential orders made it clear that general elections must be held within 3 months and should have been held since March 21, 2019, the coalition is once again bent on frustrating the appointment of a new GECOM’s Chairman. This is in clear breach of giving legal effect to Article 106 of the Constitution, since GECOM and the coalition must ensure elections within 90 days. The CCJ does not have to set an election date, the CCJ made it clear that Cabinet must resign and elections held within 3 months, while the now relegated ‘caretaker’ or ‘interim’ Government must facilitate this. It is nonsensical to now say that the CCJ has not set a date since it has upheld the Constitutional requirement of 90 days within which election should and must be held.
The CCJ had also made it clear that GECOM should always be in a state of readiness should it be necessary and the continuous registration cycles placed GECOM in such a state of readiness.
Therefore, enough obfuscation by this ‘caretaker Government’. The date for General and Regional Elections should be on or before September 21, 2019. Their Plan B can no longer be activated, rigging is now history in Guyana and the coalition’s Humpty cannot be restored!
Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf
