I reject any attempt to overthrow the constitution, for whatever reason

Apr 14, 2020 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

In what appears to be a change of position he has taken on the March 2, 2020 elections, Kaieteur News Columnist Freddie Kissoon seems to share some sympathy with the call by Dr. David Hinds for the installation of a president outside of the constitutional and electoral process.

In his April 13 column, Kissoon did not express an opinion on Hinds’ call to destroy the ballot boxes, but invited Hinds to offer to him an explanation for Granger’s candidacy. Kissoon’s preference is for someone from outside of the PNC and the PPP to be President for the first six months, and then rotation for the top position between names submitted by those two parties.

David Hinds then is seeking to overthrow the Constitution of Guyana, while Freddie will overthrow two further constitutions: those of the PPP and the PNC. Apart from Freddie’s substantially changed position on the elections, I am intrigued at his proposal that the President will exercise all the powers conferred on him by the constitution. Quite which provisions are to be abolished and which are to be retained is not clear, but what I do know is that the call for that overthrow of the Constitution is dangerous and criminal. In fact, I think it borders on treason.

It also encourages people like Hamilton Green, Vincent Alexander, Lincoln Lewis, David Hinds and Tacuma Ogunseye, many of whom I consider friends, regardless of our differences. Seeking to rewrite the election laws, Hamilton Green wants not a recount but an accounting, similar to Vincent Alexander, two persons very familiar with the PNC’s sordid history on elections and referendum. From 1968 to 1985, and even to 1992 until President Carter’s intervention.

We all know of the PNC’s fraudulent elections of 1968 which became the subject of a British television documentary, and of its rigging of the count – yes, the count, as related by Peter D’Aguiar of the 1973 votes in Mackenzie. Here is D’Aguiar in his own words, speaking of an exchange with one of his Party representatives:

“In many other circumstances – as for instance McKenzie, our duly appointed counting agent was present and he reported to me that the counting was absolutely ridiculous, uh … maybe he counted 200, 250 and then jumped and they counted 350 and he said, “but you called 250.” But he was alone there in the midst of a government setup, all PNC manipulated and he said, let’s have a recount”. But when they first recounted wrongly, they add on another 50. So, in the end, he gave up. He said, I’ve just counted key prints with it and they went on counting falsely and although I was there as your representative, I could not stop it.”

David Hinds was once a champion for free and fair elections, for which our idol Dr. Walter Rodney lost his life at the hands of the PNC. I say that with confidence, because as WPA counsel in the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry, I took my instructions from the leadership of the WPA. That he is calling for the overthrow of the democratic order I find most regrettable.

Many of the architects of the 1968 – 1985 rigging are not as active as Hamilton Green is: but some of them are still around. Even if there is such a thing, with the best will in the world, we must not reward riggers. We must condemn rigging for what it is: a criminal act that undermines democracy. Unfortunately, it remains part of the playbook of the PNC, embedded in their DNA. Nor is that Party interested in power sharing – other than to betray its partner. We do not have to go as far back as the 1964 elections to see how it undermined its Coalition partner the United Force. As Freddie reminds us, it shafted the AFC under the Cummingsburg Accord as early as the first Cabinet meeting in 2015.

The PNC has for most of its existence been an anti-democratic party. Granger and his cohorts intend to keep it that way. That is why they ignored the 2018 No Confidence Motion on spurious arithmetic grounds. They are now bent on rejecting the will of the people in the 2020 elections as well. I reject any attempt to overthrow the constitution, for whatever reason.

Christopher Ram

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