We need no more evidence that the PPP is not fit to govern

Mar 06, 2019 Letters

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Dear Editor,

As a young woman in politics very rarely am I surprised by an act done by or a statement released from the Opposition.
Surely I shouldn’t have to explain why since the PPP, while I was sitting in the House in the presence of the Speaker and the Diplomatic community, loudly heckled and protested with placards the President of Guyana while he addressed Parliament, and are no longer capable of embarrassing themselves or their constituencies.
However, two things have recently raised my brows: the first being the Leader of the Opposition’s insistence on peddling propaganda that Guyana will be plunged into a constitutional crisis by this Government if general elections are not held by March 19th 2019. He is backtracking on that doomsday sermon and is now demanding that the President call an election before April 30th.
Editor, before GECOM announced their decision to conduct house-to-house registration, the entity through their representatives made it explicit that they cannot be prepared for an election within 90 days. The Opposition continued to bombard this Government to announce a date for general elections on or before March 19th in spite of this announcement and trampled upon the fact that young people all across Guyana would have been disenfranchised if they got an election within the 90 days period.
The Opposition called upon the Government to uphold and respect the Constitution but only insofar as it suits them. As though the youth vote did not matter, the Opposition went so far as to meet with diplomats, investors and the business community preaching doom and gloom if elections weren’t held within the 90 days, saying the country will be in a constitutional crisis thereafter, all the while ignoring the very Constitution that stipulates that all Guyanese who are the age of 18 or upwards be allowed to vote (Article 59).
In my opinion, these acts were nothing short of a political body using fear and intimidation to bend the Government to their own will and self-interest. Any political body that is willing to sacrifice the youth population of Guyana for any purpose should not be a fit body to be elected to govern us. While if in opposition, there cannot be country first over self-interest and wants, then greater will be the transgression once elected to govern.
Secondly, my brows have risen at the fact that persons who are non-party members, have continuously ignored the full text of Article 106(7) of the Constitution and have been in defence of the Leader of the Opposition’s call for elections on or before March 19th.
Editor, the Constitution couldn’t have been clearer in giving the Government two options, were it in audio format as opposed to the written text we know it as today.
According to Article 106(7), the first option is to have an election held within 90 days of a defeat on a vote of confidence by a majority of all elected members of the National Assembly (yes, it must be read together with Article 106(6)). The second option is that an election date can be set beyond that initial 90 days period as the “National Assembly shall by resolution supported by not less than two-thirds of the votes of all elected members of the National Assembly determine”.
GECOM has announced that house-to-house registration is in the best interest of the electorate, thus giving the Opposition enough reason to agree with the Government of Guyana that a reasonable election date beyond March 19th , and surely not as soon as April 30th, is imperative to allow the Elections Commission to conduct its affairs in the prescribed manner.
The Opposition should join the Government in a reasonable compromise and select a date in future that will accommodate GECOM’s process to prepare and conduct an election in their in-house prescribed timeframe that both ensures the list is clean and that no Guyanese is disenfranchised. Both sides can then put the resolution to the National Assembly as the Constitution stipulates for an agreed future date for elections by two-thirds majority.
Instead, the Leader of the Opposition and those who have magically jumped on his bandwagon as though it is so easy to forget the past, have resorted to spreading fear and uncertainty among the Guyanese people and the international community and making ‘my way or the highway’ demands against the President.
If there is any more evidence that one needs to realize that the PPP is not fit to govern, then one is in denial that the only interests that the PPP would advance are those that directly benefit the PPP!

Respectfully,
Cynthia Rutherford

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