Empower voters and party members

Feb 05, 2014 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Further to an idea I have floated around for parties to allow members to elect their leaders and to hold primary type elections to choose candidates (nominees) for elective office or even party leadership in, Guyana and elsewhere, the idea is being experimented with by the Congress Party of India.
Rahul Gandhi, scion of the ruling Congress and its Vice President and prospective Prime Ministerial candidate, announced that he would like for the high command of his party to play less of a role in selecting candidates for elections.
He feels the role of candidate selection should be played by voters in a district since they are in a best position to select who will be an effective representative.
He feels the party members should choose their nominee. The primary process is used effectively in America allowing the voters to choose their nominee – and it was handed down by judicial ruling. That process should be emulated in Guyana if politicians truly believe that the people are the source of power.
In Guyana, people are not pleased with candidate selection. In an opinion poll I conducted some five years ago in Guyana, people stated they did not like some of the candidates offered as their M.Ps or some in leadership positions. There was/is a disconnect between the party leadership and representative with the masses and they complained that the leadership was not responsive to their complaints of ineffective representation and poor leadership.
The party leadership chose who they wanted to be the M.P (nominee) and the point person for an area and or party executive against the advice and opinion of the people.
Some of the M.Ps and regional Chairs were most unpopular; people had contempt for them.
In the NACTA opinion poll, people overwhelmingly endorsed the idea of a primary but voters also stated that they don’t think the parties will accept primaries because it reduces the power of the leadership of the parties; voters could reject their unpopular corrupt nominees.
None of the parties in Guyana allows one man one vote to choose party leadership or nominees for office. All the parties have disappointed the population and none of them have proposed any idea to empower voters or consult with voters on policymaking as is done in the developed countries.
I should note that recently the SPD in Germany sent out a survey to query its members on whether the party should join the ruling CDU in forming a coalition government. The leader of the SPD was against the coalition but the majority of the members (from the survey feedback) approved of it and the SPD is now in a coalition.
Similarly, in Delhi, the AAP leader was initially against forming a minority government but the party sent out a survey to test support for forming a minority government with outside support from the Congress.
The AAP members overwhelmingly endorsed forming a government and the leader listened to his members and formed a minority government.
On the issue of a primary, in Delhi, a spokesperson for Gandhi said the Congress leader would like to experiment with the idea of “choosing Congress candidates for Lok Sabha polls in over 15 seats (elections likely in May) with direct feedback on the lines of US primaries notwithstanding some initial hiccups”.
He said the new process “is in line with Gandhi’s focus on opening the system by ending the high command culture and empowering the grass root workers”.
We need such political empowering in Guyana where voters are treated like electoral slaves of the parties with hardly anything in return (good governance and a fair share of resources) for their labour.  Politicians seek self enrichment at the expense of the voters ignoring them.
In neighbouring Trinidad, Basdeo Panday floated a similar concept during the 1990s but it did not take off. He shelved it when he became Prime Minister.  He re-advocated it after 2001 when he lost office.  Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar also supported Primaries to select candidates for UNC in local and general elections.  But the concept was not implemented though she promises to put it into effect soon.
There is talk of making it a part of the constitution in proposed constitutional reform. It is noted that the UNC does have membership vote for the leadership (executives) of the party. The PNM will hold election under one man one vote in May for its executives.
Opposition Leader Dr. Keith Rowley has put forward his name to contest for leadership; there are no announced challengers although it is felt deputy Chair and former Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Penelope Beckles will vie for the position.
A poll I conducted put Rowley in the lead among PNMite supporters (not prospective voting members – voting membership is not finalized as yet).
It is my belief that people at the grass roots level, the party’s members, should be the ones to choose candidates – in a primary perhaps. A handful of leaders residing in Georgetown should not choose who should be the peoples’ candidates at say No. 63 Village or in Wismar or Charity. Let the people at the village level choose their nominee for representative.
There should be a proper laid out structure for selecting nominees —  Tammany Hall type politics in Guyana should come to an end. The process is very undemocratic. It should be transparent and not akin to backroom deals as happen in all three parties.
Primaries help to empower party workers in candidates’ selection and motivate people to work harder for their party and towards better governance.
Such a system will help to reform the government putting decent people in charge and cleanse the political system of the corrupt.
Why can’t the parties experiment with primaries to empower voters as in Trinidad, US, some European countries and now in India?
Yours truly,
Vishnu Bisram

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