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Dr. Jagdeo has all along been extremely reasonable
DEAR EDITOR,
Leader of the Opposition (LOP) Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo has been understanding and bending backwards since the passage of the NCM (No Confidence Motion) in our National Assembly on 2018-12-21.
Our Coalition Government has been taking for granted and has been exploiting our LOP’s concern for not endangering the cohesion, integrity and peace of our nation. He has been enduring the taunts of supporters of the PNC and our Coalition Government and the fears of some of our PPP/C supporters that he is being outfoxed and outsmarted.
LOP Jagdeo has all along been extremely reasonable – whilst holding that GECOM having held a successful LGE on November 18, 2018, should have had no problem in holding elections within the mandated period. He nonetheless has indicated on a number of occasions that once our Coalition Government was making good faith movements towards early elections he was open to discussions to accommodate good dates for our mandated elections.
Revelations of the two letters of the same date, 2019-02-25, addressed to the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) each with the signature of the President, now in the public domain, are the latest test of our nation’s patience and faith.
How are we to resolve the significant difference in the tones of the two letters? Let us look at the two in some detail.
In the first letter which was shared with our PPP/C GECOM Commissioners: President Granger
• Acknowledges receipt of the letter of 2019-02-21 from the Chairman of GECOM.
• Notes the Chairman’s statement that GECOM does not [now] have the capability to comply within the three month time frame commencing on 2018-12-21 (the day in which the No-Confidence Motion was passed.)
• Affirms that the Government of Guyana is committed (now) to doing everything to ensure that GECOM has sufficient time and money to conduct credible elections.
• Urges GECOM to commence preparations for the General and Regional Elections (GRE).
• Asserts that the Government will initiate measures to provide the funds and seek approval of the National Assembly to ensure that an agreement can be reached given both the Constitutional requirements and GECOM’s capability.
PPP/C supporters and indeed our whole nation could have read this and did read this letter as a belated move to get on to the path which our Constitution mandates. This is the letter that our President should have sent to the Chairman of GECOM on the 23rd or 24th of December, 2018 and it would have been consistent with the initial response of the Prime Minister and many members of the Government immediately after the passage of the NCM on the night of the 21st December, 2018, and of our President in our newspapers the following morning.
However, the second letter studiously avoids any reference or acknowledgement of the NCM of 2018-12-21, and any Constitutional requirements, which are recognized in the first letter. This second letter reverts to the posture of, “Nothing happened on 2018-12-21…Business as usual.”
What are we to make of this second letter? Was the second letter intended to supersede the first? Certainly, it raises the question whether different positions have been taken by different persons at State House, Ministry of the Presidency, Congress Place, and the Centre for Change? One must wonder what the positions are of the WPA, JFA and the other smaller parties of the coalition Government.
In the circumstances, Dr. Jagdeo and every fair-minded Guyanese must be troubled by the presence of these two letters. Mr. Harmon should not find expressed fears of fraud to be malicious, deceitful and bewildering as the Chronicle Headline of March 01, 2019 bellows.
At this time, dates for General Elections in 2019 consequent to the passage of the NCM should be the only subject for the discussions between Opposition Leader, Dr. Jagdeo and President Granger.
I differ with Audreyanna Thomas’s letter published in the Stabroek Newspapers on March 1, 2019, her concerns about our country descending into chaos should be better directed towards our President.
Yours sincerely,
Samuel A.A. Hinds
Former President and Former Prime Minister
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