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The secrecy of the ballot must be emphasised on election platforms

Jan 22, 2015 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
Changing with the times, I feel impelled to send an overtly political message to my personal friends in high places within all the parties in our national and local assemblies. My advice is to make the secrecy of the ballot a main emphasis on your election platforms.
Observation of the most blatant vote-buying in the last two elections, and already in the next, leads logically to this response. Agree to anything, take the money or the promises, then cast your vote the way you really feel. No one will know, and no reprisals can stand up in a system that’s open to publicity.
The law says it’s a secret ballot, and this is one law the people can make enforced: that’s what scrutineers are for. Secret ballot means that no one can know how any individual voted. It means each voter is free to sell the promise of his vote, for cash or for electioneering slogans, without direct sanctions for non-fulfilment.
We know from Georgetown, Linden and elsewhere that an entire electoral district can be punished after results are counted. But maybe we can gamble that the next government will be less vindictive. That’s another promise to offer the electorate: reconciliation and sincerity for all the people’s interest. The job is to make that promise convincing, before and after election.
Is this counselling dishonesty? For sure it’s horribly cynical. But to repeat the reply I got from a police sergeant when I protested at a shakedown in his station, this is Guyana.
Gordon Forte

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