Serendipity or the beginning of a dictatorship?

Mar 10, 2019 Letters

Dear Editor,

It seems the president would have the nation believe that his reluctance to announce a date for election is merely serendipity in motion -induced by his majesty, for the good of the Nation! Having asserted that there is no crisis. The president in his meeting with the opposition leader said, “GECOM is an independent agency and there is no part of the Constitution which gives the president or executive in general, authority to interfere, intervene or intrude in the work of the election commission.” The president is portraying to the public that the onus is on GECOM to supply him with a date by which GECOM could deliver “credible elections” for him to announce a date for same. Is the president trying to suggest that the last LGE, not six months ago by GECOM was not credible? I don’t recall any such complaint by the president when those results were out. Neither do I recall any condemnation by the president of the validity of list of electors when GECOM CEO (Lowinfield) said it will be valid until March 31st. If the president truly believe in the independence of GECOM that statement from the CEO should have been reassuring. Clearly! The president, if he is not leading the charge on the delaying tactics by calling for GECOM to do new registration, he has joined the bandwagon on the issue. The president seems oblivious of the Constitution he had sworn to uphold and protect which had generated a NCM, which decreed that elections be held in not more than 90 days from December 21st 2018.The president by alluding that himself “ or anybody, cannot intervene, cannot intrude, cannot interfere with the work of Gecom,” in his effort to assert the independence of GECOM, should be seen as a valiant attempt to divert or erase from the memory of the masses, the fact that he had usurp the 23 years old orthodoxy in the appointment of a GECOM chairman by unilaterally appointing Patterson to the post. He should be aware that his unilateral appointment has severely compromised the independence of GECOM. His pronouncement of GECOM’S independence now, is picturesque of the president holding up a smokescreen. GECOM in an independent mode has a constitutional mandate to be ready to deliver credible elections to the people whenever it is called on. The president is entitled to make that call. The irony and ludicrousness of him attempting to exact confirmation of GECOM’S readiness before setting a date was exposed, prior to his meeting with the opposition leader, by one of his own party commissioner at GECOM. The commissioner, Vincent Alexander had told the media that it is the president who has to set a date for elections and GECOM has to deliver on that date. The NCM constitutional timeline ticks on! After the 90 days the authority to set a date for election would be constitutionally out of his jurisdiction. But this is Guyana! With a president known for disregarding the Constitution, the Nation stand in awe. The fact that the president does not see a constitutional crisis looming on the horizon while everyone else does, is an ominous sign. Could this be the beginning of a dictatorship?

Rudolph Singh

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