I have some deep concerns about the COVID-19 curfew enforcement

May 17, 2020 Letters

Dear Editor

A video purportedly showing police entering a person’s home to arrest people having a get together prompted me to write this letter. There needs to be mass dissemination of information as to what is a curfew and the rules and the penalties regarding the current COVID-10 order. I am wondering also if arresting persons and taking them to the police station is the wisest decision as would this not expose them further to possible infection and also those at the police station?
There is a need to ask the COVID-19 Task Force and the Chairman of GECOM for clarification on a few observations. In a previous letter I questioned the, what I consider, stupidity of wanting 33,000 masks and have the observers and personnel change masks every hour. I can only conclude given our history that someone may have gotten a drawback as I doubt there was any tendering or even three quotes. I hope I am wrong.
I also want to touch on the issue of curfew and the use of the curfew to limit the hours of the recount. Curfew, and please correct me if I am wrong, prevents one from being on the road and in the streets without reasonable cause. I am assuming that if the people are in the compound or inside of the convention center they are not in breach of the curfew.
So there was no valid reason to prevent them from going beyond 7.00PM. In any event, if being in the convention center after curfew commenced, the law would have been broken as 7:00PM would already be in breach, so why not a later hour. There was/is no impediment that would have stopped the Task Force from lengthening the hours and they could still do that.
I also am notified that they stop counting sometimes by 5:00PM because they may not complete the next box by 7:00PM. I cannot understand why they cannot not go beyond the 7:00PM to complete the box if necessary. I really do not want to use disrespectful terms here.
Officers, agents and observers would have been given IDs or letters that would have cleared them if they were stopped by the police. Personally, I consider the election recounting as an essential service or at least reasonable grounds for being on the road on their way home. I cannot for the love of life understand that we allow people to be around when they usually are, ie during the day and then establish curfew during the night especially since most of the night life businesses are on shut down. I cannot understand how it is that we allow a number of plane flights bringing in Exxon workers from all parts of the world but COVID-19 is the excuse for not letting the observers from the Carter Center in.
I get the distinct impression that, just like the crazy bigger half and the rounding up of the half man, the limitation was simply to extend the life of the present government. I am now convinced of this as the Chairwoman wrote to the Task Force requesting an increase of recount stations. Apparently days have passed and there is no response. I do not understand why the Chair has to request permission from the Task Force to have this increase. I am sure that GECOM officers and the agents and observers are intelligent enough to take the necessary precautions to keep themselves safe. She needs to go ahead and do what is necessary to fulfill the timeframe the Commission has set itself.
She should at least recognize the conflict situation re the Task Force, as the heads have an interest and are contestant in the elections, and are part of the government which, from all indications, wants to extend its life having failed to have Mingo’s declaration accepted.
Now if the police want, they can enter the Convention Center like they did the people’s home in Bartica and arrest everyone there. But this would not happen so what is the Chairman waiting for. They should go ahead and set up the other stations as I maintain running an elections is an essential service.
I am wondering why the GECOM Chair did not make representation with regards permission for the Carter Center representatives to arrive in Guyana subject to the same conditions imposed on CARICOM reps. After all, GECOM is an independent commission and she should have condemned this refusal. We were reminded so often by the President that GEOCOM is independent and it is GECOM that invited the Carter observers who are still duly accredited.
Yours truly
Rajendra Bisessar

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