Latest update January 18th, 2025 7:00 AM
My reasoning favours abandonment over a pause
DEAR EDITOR,
GECOM appears to now be in a state of preparedness for a General and Regional election; the question now is if the ongoing House-to-House exercise (H2H) will be paused until after the election or abandoned altogether.
My reasoning favours abandonment over a pause, H2H has its genesis in a decision made when no Election was due; the insistence on following a work programme that includes H2H in concurrence with election preparations has led to great confusion among the populace. The previous H2H was done by agreement of the Government of Guyana, Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and the Parliamentary Political Parties on June 14, 2007, no such agreement exists for the current exercise, and consequently, there is no mandate for the National Registration Commission to replace or update the current National Register of Registrants (NRR) with data gathered by the current exercise. The current H2H is being conducted without the presence of PPP scrutineers; a scrutineer is a person who observes any process, which requires rigorous oversight, either to prevent the occurrence of corruption or genuine mistakes. A major issue that will arise after the field portion of the exercise is concluded is the legal admissibility of data forms bereft of party scrutineer signatures. The length of time required for a ‘credible’ H2H is undetermined; previous exercises have taken 18-36 months; such time is not available before the constitution renders the current Executive ‘usurpers’ and the parliamentary opposition has made it clear that there will be no extension granted.
For those in favour of a ‘pause’ in the H2H exercise, I point to the absence of PPP and other party scrutineers as the reason, no data collected this far will or should be legally admissible for addition to the NRR. A fresh exercise can be scheduled to facilitate all the legal requirements and should be done at a time when tensions and political angst are not at their zenith.
The cry of the ruling APNU/AFC Coalition of “no house-to-house, no election” should be viewed as those of the proverbial drowning man clutching at his last straw, having already broken the dual citizen, usurper and the infamous ‘half-man round-up’ straws. The Constitution demands an Election and from all indications, it will be possible within the legal timeframe. At that point, the ‘drowning man’ will be rescued and put to sit and dry out on the benches of the parliamentary opposition.
Respectfully
Robin Singh
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