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PPP might not support overseas voting – Ramkarran

Mar 11, 2010 News

Speaker of the of National Assembly, Ralph Ramkarran, in a recent television interview was questioned on the issue of absentee balloting for Guyanese resident in other countries, one that he himself had raised some time ago.
He said that while it is an absolute right for Guyanese under the constitution it has to be viewed with some degree of flexibility
Ramkarran stated that although he may not be advocating it he certainly thought it should be in the public domain hence his reason for penning his opinion on the issue recently whilst at a Conference for Commonwealth Speakers held in India earlier this year.
Though not currently challenged by Guyanese residents in foreign countries, the Constitution of Guyana on the matter does not preclude persons from voting as a result of their place (or country of residence) as long as they meet the other requirements, namely of age and citizenship.
He claimed that the matter resurged to the forefront of his consciousness when he learnt while he was attending the conference in India that their country’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was going to put in place the mechanism for overseas voting in order to allow Indian nationals resident in other countries the opportunity to elect their country’s Government.
When questioned as to his party’s position on the matter, Ramkarran’s first response was “Let sleeping dogs lie” which later changed to a proposition that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) should facilitate registration and balloting for Guyanese at the High Commissions and Embassies in the “major countries” which would therefore satisfy the requirements of the constitution.
He stated that he “strongly doubted that his party would support the implementation of the overseas vote.”
This opposition by his party would be a clear violation of the constitutional rights of Guyanese, especially “the right to vote – one of the most fundamental rights” according to the interviewer and which would with Ramkarran’s position that this is an “absolute right” of Guyanese.
However Ramkarran later purported that “one has to view the constitution with some degree of flexibility on all kinds of matters”, even one such as the inalienable right of a citizen to vote, clearly laid out in the country’s constitution.

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