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A date for elections

Sep 24, 2019 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The least of our problems is naming a date for elections. Guyana is facing international isolation, the United States, Britain, the European Union and the Commonwealth have all indicated that it will be difficult for them to support Guyana’s development needs in light of them deeming the government as being unconstitutional.
Development aid will be frozen from all the international agencies in which those countries and the Commonwealth have a hand. This will be done very quietly and without any fanfare.
Things look bleak for the government. The Inter-American Development Bank is not likely to disburse any further funding. The United Nations Development Programme which is providing technical assistance is likely to play and wait-and- see game. The World Bank and the IMF are going to adopt a hands-off attitude until after the elections.
The government just announced that it will commence work on the Linden to Mabura Road this year. What this means is not that the road works will commence but that the necessary prequalification of contractors will commence. This too is most probably going to be affected since the United Kingdom is providing the resources.
The naming of date of elections is not going to affect the international isolation of the government. It has called this upon itself and upon the Guyanese people by its prevarication over complying with the no-confidence motion.
The Granger administration is not one which can ever again be trusted by the international community to comply with what the Commonwealth calls, the rule of law and the Constitution. Guyana has found itself in a real embarrassing situation. The government failed to undertake a diplomatic offensive to justify its actions in not proroguing parliament, resigning and in calling fresh elections by September 18, 2019. It is now reaping the rewards of that failure. It must not blame anyone for doing their homework.
But regardless of if it names an elections date today, the problems at GECOM is enough to give the entire nation a headache. GECOM is riddled with problems. GECOM’s Secretariat had no reason to commence house-to-house registration in the absence of a full Commission.
And quite honestly, things have not improved since the new Chairperson took office. They have gotten more worrying.
House to house registration was concluded earlier than expected but a decision was taken to merge the new database from this exercise with the old database. The new data is unverified and that itself is a major sore point. The merging of the two databases will result in greater confusion.
The Chairperson has indicated that GECOM will be ready to deliver elections by February. But there was no precise date offered and there is no indication as to how GECOM plans to address the confusion which will arise from the merging of the lists. What steps will be taken to verify new registrants so that the Opposition can repose greater confidence in the List?
Naming a date for elections, does not answer any of these questions. It is clear also that Cabinet is still around. Naming a date for election does not answer the concerns about the continuing existence of Cabinet.
A date for elections therefore does not guarantee that we will have free and fair elections. It does not assure us that GECOM will be able to sort out the mess that is likely to be caused by its insistence on merging the two sets of data. It does not end the political divisions on the Commission.
So why all this concern about a date for elections when the credibility of those elections is still a matter of concern? A date for elections does not mean that those problems will disappear.

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