When will the government do the honourable thing and call elections?

Jul 12, 2019 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

This unending drama of the valid No Confidence Motion (NCM) against the APNU-AFC Coalition Government is testing the limits of patience of the citizens of this country. One evil twist after another is coming from the government, all the time repeating the mantra “we will honour the Constitution of Guyana”, while refusing to do exactly what the Constitution dictates. When will the government do the honourable thing and call elections?
I want to bet that they will use all tactics to delay the elections until their 5-year time in office is gone, and don’t put it past them to take it even further beyond the 5-year stipulated for any government in power in this country, as the “House to house registration exercise’ will help to do.
Now the APNU-AFC Government is trying to (or has already) put their foot into the doorway, with government submitting names for GECOM Chairman, when the Constitution does not warrant this in any way. The Constitution clearly tries to prevent the unilateral appointment of the GECOM Chairman, and that is why it gives the Opposition the task to submit a list to the President. If the President or Government is going to submit names, we are back to square one, with the President choosing whom the government wants for Chairman.
Editor, the APNU-AFC Coalition Government will hold on to power “by hook or by crook”, mostly by crook, as we are witnessing playing out in front of our very eyes. It is becoming rather evident that Mr. Granger is really not in charge here. Why then did he not do what he admitted to on December 22, 2018, when he made a public statement that the Government had been defeated by the NCM of the day before? Even the Prime Minister admitted publicly that the government was defeated by the NCM.
These are the two persons holding the highest offices in this country, and they have been over-ridden by those under them, who seem to be the directors of the political affairs in Guyana. It’s amazing that no one is highlighting this obvious kink in the political fabric of our nation.
The excuse of the dire need for “House to House Registration” is a mantra that the President continues to sing from since the beginning of this year, and continued to do so despite the court rulings against his government, when it is clear that this is an excuse to delay the elections.
I heard when the Attorney General was addressing the CCJ, saying that there must be “House to House Registration” for every election in Guyana. That is a huge farce. So many elections were done and accepted by both sides of Parliament without having to resort to “House to House Registration”, when a list can be sanitized and updated by a “Claims and Objections” period, especially when the list of Voters was perfectly alright to APNU-AFC and all others and valid up to April 2019?
The President says that there are as many as 200,000 errors in the list. When and how did that occur? That had to happen after April 2019, and if true, could only be done by GECOM? Who else has access to this list? Also, the cry that youths will be disenfranchised and not be able to vote is hogwash. All citizens from 14 years old and beyond are eligible to register in all the Continuous Registration Periods held by GECOM in the past. This means that those who will become eligible to vote in 2019 have already been registered since 2015, if they so wanted, and their names will automatically be included in the current list. There will be some stragglers who can easily be included in a new Continuous Registration and Claims and Objections Periods. It’s as simple as that.
President Granger needs to take control of his underlings and be the Ruler, and do the honourable thing and go ahead and take the names submitted from the Opposition and choose a GECOM Chairman as the Constitution stipulates, and don’t interfere with the decisions of GECOM once they are within the Constitutional mandate.
The President can direct GECOM to call elections within a few months, shelve the House to House delay, allow GECOM to do Continuous Registration and Claims and Objections period, and lead this nation into fresh elections, something which I am sure will earn him the respect from the majority of the electorate, and not only the few who are pandering to him for their own narrow political gains.
Mr. President, enough is enough. Remember, almost half of the electorate did not vote you into power, and by not doing the honourable thing now, that percentage will shrink further, and will only reduce the chances of your government going back into power. The peace, tranquility and prosperity depends on your decisive actions right now.
Concerned Citizen

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