APNU+AFC's new position on claims and objections proves they misdirected the nation

APNU+AFC’s new position on claims and objections proves they misdirected the nation

Sep 04, 2019 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

The recent House-to-House exercise, now thankfully ended, is another stain in our history of rigged elections. From the inception, it was evident the House-to-House (HTH) registration by GECOM was politically directed and an effort to create a rigged electoral list for a rigged election.
Ordinary citizens were threatened with being charged for not registering, police officers were forced to prove they registered and citizens were terrorized their existing ID cards would become illegal. APNU+AFC leaders were everywhere telling people without HTH there would be no elections.
Senior members of APNU+AFC are now telling the miniscule few people who attended the “government” outreaches in the last week, not to worry about the termination of HTH. They tell people they can register, if they never registered previously, in GECOM’s Claims and Objections (C&O) period. This is good, sound, correct advice, in total accordance with the laws of Guyana. Finally APNU+AFC is being truthful, telling people that in any election period, C&O allow new registrants to become part of the National Register of Registrants (NRR) and, if 18 years and over, will list them in the Official Voters’ List (OVL) for the upcoming elections. They now confess to their supporters, no one will be disenfranchised by C&O and that HTH was, in fact, just a ruse. Their new position is a confession they knew all along, but misdirected people in a desperate strategy to avoid elections this year.
This position, that C&O permits new voters to register and the fastest route to elections, was the position of Bharrat Jagdeo and the PPP, the majority of civil society and the judiciary. It was also the position Keith Lowenfield, the Chief Elections Officer of GECOM, expressed publicly more than once, but refused to act in accordance with the law, choosing a pathway congruent with that of APNU+AFC.
Justice Claudette Singh, the new Chairman of GECOM, kept her promise to act only in accordance with the constitution and the law by voting at GECOM in favour of ending HTH and proceeding to C&O.
Without saying it directly, the leaders of APNU+AFC now shamelessly admit they misdirected people, deliberately, over many months simply to avoid elections, intentionally violating the constitution, the Parliament and the judiciary. There was no eureka moment – the truth did not dawn on them suddenly, they knew it all along.
The difference now is that, thus far, the constitutionally appointed GECOM Chair has acted in accordance with the law and has shown independence. Hopefully, she has the stamina not to buckle under the inevitable pressure.
Clearly, APNU+AFC misdirected people, deliberately lying to them they would be disenfranchised if the existing NRR is not discarded and a new one created with a new HTH. It was always part of a sordid, reckless and illegal strategy to invalidate the No-Confidence Motion, acting in contempt of the Parliament, the Judiciary and the Constitution.
It was all designed for one purpose – avoid the elections for as long as possible and then rig the elections whenever it is held with the help of a rigged voters’ list. It begs the question – why are they so dreadfully afraid of free and fair elections?
Dr. Leslie Ramsammy

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