Latest update January 1st, 2025 1:00 AM
Jul 22, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
When you are contesting an election and you are not the frontrunner, you have to stay focused. Diversions can cost you votes, since instead of dedicating yourself to mobilizing support, you end up being preoccupied by unwarranted fears.
Take for example the hue and cry by the opposition parties about the reopening of the claims and objections period. The main opposition parties dispatched a letter of protest after they learnt that there was the possibility of a new claims and objections period being reopened upon the demand of the ruling party.
According to reports in the media, one of the grounds for the objection was the fear that the voters’ list could have been tainted. This is a most preposterous suggestion. How can enfranchising those who were not registered because of the lack of source documents taint the voters’ list?
The argument can however be made that GECOM had previously refused to reopen the process, Instead, a proposal was reportedly touted to allow those with source documents, but who were not registered, to be added to the list. This, however, is not the legally prescribed procedure for additions to the voters’ list. Such additions can only be done through a process of claims. As such there has to be a new claims and objections process.
One of the commissioners of GECOM offered a reason for not supporting the reopening of claims and objections. He said no new grounds for so doing were offered. In many respects, one can appreciate the position of this commissioner, even if one does not agree with it.
As it turned out, no sooner had GECOM voted 3-2 to allow for the reopening of claims and objections for two weeks, did APNU come out and say that it was not opposed to enfranchising voters. Yet this same party was a signatory of a letter to GECOM before the vote was taken raising concerns about the reopening.
Another opposition party, the AFC, argued that the reopening of the claims and objections can push the date of elections back and thus allow the PPP to continue to rule way into next year.
Since the GECOM decision, no one seems to be bothered anymore about the charge of tainting the voters’ list, or about how this was supposed to have been achieved.
This is the sort of confusion that exists within the ranks of the opposition, and one of the reasons why they will continue to lose credibility.
Another reason why they will lose favour is that they are beginning to believe their own propaganda about the government wanting to extend its term. If they continue with this line, it will detract them from mobilizing support, and therefore reduce the votes they attract.
The AFC, in particular, seems to be harping on the possibility of the president extending his term in office through a delay in elections. The president or the PPP does not need to delay elections to have a third term for the president.
A third term is permanently off the cards. The opposition parties should forget about this fear. There will be no attempt at extending the term of the PPP or of the president.
Of course, if the PPP wanted they could have attempted to secure a third term without it having anything to do with delaying elections. In short, a third term could have been attempted without having to put off or delay the elections.
In Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega will run for a successive term this year. The constitution forbids a successive term, but the courts in that country have ruled that the provision which forbids a successive term for the president of that country is unlawful. The basis of that ruling is a denial of equal opportunity.
An important principle of constitutionalism is equality under the law. The basis of the court’s decision in Nicaragua was that Ortega could not be denied the equal opportunity as others to contest for the presidency.
One supposes that the same argument can be made in the case of Guyana, that if President Jagdeo really wanted to run for a third term, he ought not to be denied that right.
Thus, if the PPP wanted, it did not need to delay elections to push for a third term, it could have simply at the last minute named Bharrat Jagdeo as its presidential candidate. GECOM would not have been able to oppose this because it is the courts and not GECOM that interprets the constitution. GECOM is compelled to accept a nomination from a political party.
This is how a possible scenario could have unfolded.
The PPP under Bharrat Jagdeo wins the most votes at the elections and therefore the right to the presidency. GECOM declares the PPP’s presidential candidate as the person who has won the elections and therefore to be elected president.
The PPP’s candidate is sworn in because GECOM says he won the elections. The opposition jumps up and says no, this is in violation of the constitution. They argue that the constitution prohibits someone who has served two terms from serving again.
The PPP says it is the courts that have to interpret the constitution. They advise the protesting opposition to take the matter to the courts.
The opposition files a motion against the president, asking the courts to deem unlawful his appointment. The court rules that it can only inquire into the validity of the appointment and not the question of the person holding the office, or alternatively, it rules that the president is ineligible to hold the office or that the provision forbidding a third term is unenforceable. Either way, the legal arguments will take years, and the matter will end up in the CCJ. By that time the third term would have come and gone.
But all of this is just a conspiracy theory, something that the AFC seems to like dabbling in.
There will be no third term. There will be no attempt to delay elections. The PPP does not need to do this because the result of the elections is a foregone conclusion.
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