…another t’ing?
The new Chair of GECOM finally spoke. But unfortunately, while she didn’t speak in the cryptic language of the Oracle at Delphi which the CCJ seemed to favour, we’re still no closer to knowing when the next elections will be scheduled. So is there any progress from the political crisis into which we have been thrown by the manoeuvres of the PNC following the successful NCM? No really.
Firstly, we should remember that we’re still putting the cart before the horse. It’s the constitutional duty of the PRESIDENT to proclaim an elections date…and only then can GECOM inform him of what’s the best they can do about meeting that date. More specifically, they’d have to explain what “danger” or “hardship” would follow if the date proposed by the President would be used. But let’s overlook that for the moment – since the Government gives short shrift to the Constitution in any case! Let’s consider what’s ahead as a consequence of her decision.
Before we get to Claudette Singh’s order that the H2H exercise be stopped on Saturday, let’s remind ourselves that the PNC’s claim that the old list is “bloated” with PPP “sleepers” in and out of Guyana is plain ridiculous to begin with. If the PPP did have that option, how come they lost the 2015 elections?? They rigged themselves out of office??
Anyhow, more than 350,000 names would’ve been registered by Saturday and these will have to be MERGED into the old NRR. So what do we have here?? Does Claudette Singh have the slightest clue of what it is to “merge” those names? This isn’t merging lists of precisely coded electrical parts. The PNC will demand that even if there is one data point different on a clearly duplicate name, it’ll have to be added to the list. So what if the PNC’s “bloated” list will now be exponentially expanded?!! GECOM and the scrutineers will have a whale of a time cleaning up that whale of a list!! But it’ll buy more time for the PNC, no?? Even as they kvetch about the decision to truncate the H2H!
But let’s say the merging takes a couple of weeks and we have a Preliminary List of Electors (PLE) in four.
We can now see why Singh specified an open-ended “extended” Claims and Objections (C&O) period to sanitise that OLE? With the certainty that the PNC literally had a field day during the H2H Registration, we can be sure the PPP’s scrutineers will need more than the normal six weeks to be satisfied.
The question, of course, is when will GECOM – really Singh – give her suggested date to Granger?? And we return to the issue we had from the onset:
When will Granger dissolve Parliament and call elections??
…to square the circle
But the merging and creation of the OLE will alone take us past Sept 18 – the expiry date for the PNC government. Will the PPP return to Parliament to authorise an extension for elections without even knowing what that extension will be?? Will they sign a blank cheque and hand it to the PNC?? Your Eyewitness doubts this.
Then there’s the other arrow in the PNC’s quiver: Basil Williams’ challenge to the CJ’s decision that the removal of any name from the present List – which will remain – is unconstitutional since it would implicitly place a residency requirement for voting. We are pretty certain this will not be dropped and Granger will use this to delay dissolving Parliament and setting that elections date. Sadly, we aren’t dealing with people with integrity and they will use all the tricks hones in 28 years of rigging, to game the system.
We’re back at square one, folks. No elections ‘till the PNC says so!!
…and succeeding
After the GECOM Chair’s announcement, PNC Commissioner Vincent Alexander said, “What is important in the first instance is that the House-to-House information will not be discarded… [this] information is integral to the process”.
Because of the Guyanised Haitian names?
