WPA part and parcel of Govt’s constitutional disobedience – Nandlall

…as Party proposes possible Dec 2019 elections

After credible advice, the Working People’s Alliance has admitted that General and Regional Elections could be facilitated this same year if the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) upholds its timelines.

This is according to Executive Member, Dr David Hinds on Friday who stated, “If GECOM stays to its timeline of three months and finish the House-t-House [Registration] in October and then you have Claims and Objections and those things, we think that reasonably, elections as a compromise could be held in December”.
The Opposition had stated that Government’s support of the national registration exercise was due to the fact that it will delay the elections by several months. As such, Hinds insisted that these claims will be proven factual if elections are indeed not held this year.
“We in the WPA think that if you go into next year, then you’re inviting yourself…to the charge of delaying tactics. We think that if we go along with that timeline, we think that a December election would be in order.”

Part and parcel
In response to Hind’s utterances, former Attorney General and Opposition MP, Anil Nandlall said that the WPA is part and parcel of the Government and, therefore, part and parcel of the unit that is intent on disobeying the Constitution.
“Therefore one ought not to be surprised that the WPA would hold such a position. The truth of the matter is that the No-Confidence Motion was passed since December 21, 2018, and the Constitution clearly says that elections must be held within 3 months thereafter. Whatever perpetuation one may wish to use, the fact is that as I speak, elections are due. The duty of GECOM is to ensure that they are ready to deliver an election within the earliest possible time,” he said.

Nandlall referenced Wednesday’s rulings by Chief Justice Roxane George, who said that names cannot be removed from the National Register of Registrants. In this regard, he noted that the House-to-House Registration process is plagued with problems and that the voters’ list could easily be refreshed by the Claims and Objections exercise.
“Clearly it means that elections should be held at the earliest possible time and the mechanism that can facilitate those elections at the earliest is the one that can, should be used and that mechanism is the use of the last list refreshed with the Claims and Objections,” Nandlall noted.
Just last month, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo informed that the ongoing registration is likely to run into the first quarter of 2020, which is way beyond the time to host General and Regional Elections so stipulated by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
This, he noted, is according to a work plan of the elections body which was created some time ago. Despite objections from the Opposition and other stakeholders, GECOM went ahead and started fresh registration and the Commission said the exercise will last some three months.
The Opposition Leader shared the two-page document which detailed a list of activities to be done leading up to and during this exercise and the number of days for each activity. He pointed out that the work plan contained a 290-day period for the registration exercise, which would run until February 2020, thus, further delaying the early elections constitutionally due on or before September 18, 2019.
According to Jagdeo, GECOM would spend close to six months to get a voters’ list, when there is already one available that can be sanitised through an extended Claims and Objections period.
After delivering it’s ruling on June 18, 2019, the Caribbean Court of Justice then proceeded to issue the consequential orders stipulating that the Cabinet must resign and call elections in keeping with the constitutional deadline, that is, three months.
Since this deadline had already elapsed from the passage of the No-Confidence Motion on December 21, the countdown commenced on June 18, which puts an end to the deadline on September 18 of this year.