My advice to the new GECOM chairman

Jun 26, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I would like to think that before this edition of this newspaper hits the vendors’ stands, the Opposition Leader would have adhered to the Carter formula and submitted a collection of names that the president must choose from.
I would like to think that when those names are presented the president will comply with the Guyana constitution and the ruling of the CCJ why he finds the complete list unacceptable.
I would like to think the president knows the Carter formula restricts him from having a unilateral selectee. Those days of Harold Bollers and James Patterson are gone forever. Even a brand new constitution will never allow an article in the document that will empower the president of the republic to select a GECOM chairman without consultation with others from different spheres of society.
This is my advice to the new GECOM chairman. Contact the different embassies in Guyana, not only the ABC missions but India, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, the UNDP, and the OAS. Ask them to fund a team of foreign lawyers to study the laws and the current voters’ list and make a decision one way or the other.
Could the present list be valid for an early election with those who were registered before the age of 18 being incorporated in the list? If the lawyers agree that a credible and proper national poll could be completed with the present list then let us have general elections long, long before December 2019.
If the list has to be transformed by house to house registration then, so be it. It means that election cannot be within three months from June. I am suggesting this pathway to avoid national instability.
A team of lawyers from outside cannot be accused of PPP bias or PNC friendship. We have heard no such accusation against the CCJ. There are fools deep in the PNC and AFC but I think the insanity has not reached the level where any of those mandarins will publicly state that the CCJ panel was biased against the PNC or favored the Opposition Leader.
If the new GECOM chairman goes the way of my advice, he needs to talk to the Opposition Leader and President, and require them to adhere to the decision of the foreign team. There is danger lurking if the new GECOM chairman decides there is no house to house registration. Here is my inflexible opinion on what Jordan and Nagamootoo exclaimed at the Bartica rally (which we in the media and academia are yet to pronounce if the two men were speaking as governmental leaders or party leaders); I think it was a subtle call to citizens.
Jordan can have his explanation of what he meant by “war.” It is my opinion that the word “war” was used in a subtle context. I would suggest that the law against incitement be studied meticulously to decide the meaning of that particular situation in which the word was used.
I have no opinion whatsoever that Jordan’s choice of word would incite people. But I have the right to my opinion to say I don’t accept his interpretation.
It is the end of civilized society if citizens have to accept the explanations and interpretations of what politicians say they mean. I guess that is the end of free speech. Nagamootoo, I believe, operated on the same wavelength as Jordan. He said if there is no house to house registration, and youths are denied their vote they will demonstrate anger.
Because of what Nagamootoo and Jordan uttered about house to house registration, the new GECOM chairman would be best advised to seek international legal opinion. Those who are chanting for house to house registration are fools.
I was having lunch with David Hinds on Monday at Spicy Dish on Albert Street, when GECOM Commissioner, Desmond Trotman, came up. With a smile broader than the Essequibo River he said to me, “I will read about this lunch.”
Well, Desmond is right; I’m writing about the lunch dialogue. I am not going to quote what David discussed with me. I can quote parts of my input. One section of my conversation was that house to house registration does not favour the PNC. If they go with house to house registration they will lose the election.
My position is that substantial numbers that are likely to vote for the PNC will not be on the new list. The PNC is in self-destructive mode. They want house to house registration to delay the poll until 2020. When that poll comes with the new voter’s list, the PNC will lose. Right now it is the devil or the deep blue sea for the PNC.

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