Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Apr 22, 2020 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

I have been following the 2020 Guyana election saga and concluded that we need to be following our Constitution. The Appeal Court gave their ruling on what the Supreme Law states. We, the people of Guyana, crafted and approved of the Constitution in keeping with the customs and mores as a people. The very people who are telling us to obey the laws are in fact asking us to break the laws.
The electoral predicament was recently taken to the Appeal Court and the Judges spelled out the relevant laws for us. And here we are several days later unable to get anywhere, because what the Appeal Court spelled out is different to what is not only demanded by the PPP, but also the International players who have decided that they are entitled to intervene in our electoral matters in contravention of our Supreme Law. (Note that Donald Trump was recently impeached for soliciting Russian assistance in the 2016 US general elections in contravention of the US Constitution).
The Chair of GECOM has been unable to give definitive solutions to the impasse. I cannot read her mind, but I would guess:
(a) The Chair is probably afraid of and trying to appease the PPP (and I read that she has received death threats). We must not forget that she locked herself in her office while the tabulation (and the melee which made the workspace untenable), for Region 4 was taking place.
(b) Being a former Judge who presided over an Election Petition, she knows the laws that pertain to the electoral procedures – and the Appeal Court spelled them out for her. No party has appealed or questioned the Appeal Court’s decision.
(c) The Chair probably fears that if the situation gets out of hand, the buck will fall in her lap, hence, in my opinion, her dithering over issues.
The Chair is caught between a rock and a hard place – either pleasing the PPP and the International community and throwing our Supreme Law aside, or going with her gut instincts and knowledge, and abiding with the Supreme Law which is our glue.
Once we throw out the Supreme Law, law and order in Guyana will be seriously compromised. If we abide with the Supreme Law, there will still be something holding us together and which we can argue about, although it may be tenuous. But some glue is better than nothing at all.
However, we look at the situation, as the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and some local commentators have stated: “It is not going to end well”.
Yours faithfully
Professor Kean Gibson

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