The Electoral Reform Group: Part of Guyana’s dilemma

May 24, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

---

Kaieteur News– I doubt 99 percent of the population from March 4, when Guyana stood precariously near the abyss never experienced since Forbes Burnham died in 1985, ever heard the names of the people who formed a group named the Electoral Reform Group (ERG).
No matter how patriotic you claim to be, your credibility will not rise and expand if you choose to be silent on the five-month rigging of the March 2020 election. No one can be so stupid and dishonest to say that it was a partisan affair and they want no part of it.
The rigging of the March 2020 election was unrelated to the PPP which eventually was declared the winner on the last day in July. I would apologise to the ERG if it or any of its leading names can explain why denouncing fraud on March 4 was a partisan act.
Here are the words of the ERG’s leader, Dr. Desmond Thomas, in a published newspaper letter of May 20, 2021, “… every act or expression of opinion is interpreted as an indication of political bias, whether for the PPP or PNC. It is constantly amazing to see how educated people allow a partisan perspective to override any exercise of commonsense. A tactic of persons out to mislead for narrow partisan purpose is to tack on all kinds of extraneous issues and non-sequiturs to a statement, then beat them to discredit the statement or position taken. How we can expect to make progress and prosper individually and collectively as a nation if we operate like this beats me. When will Guyanese people appreciate that this behavior will only impoverish us further…”
This is familiar territory to the Guyanese people. Those who are part of the problem, by some strange psychic contortion, lift themselves above the fray and claim they are independent and want to solve the problem. They will not succeed because they are part of the enduring plight.
A meticulous analysis of that quote will show how devious is the ERG, thus my position that it is part of Guyana’s perennial political tragedy. When does Dr. Thomas say “tack on all kinds of extraneous issues and non-sequiturs to a statement, then, beat them to discredit the statement or position taken,” what is he referring to? He is responding to the evasion people have accused the ERG of. It avoids making a statement on the five-month election atrocity.
The election drama he refers to as an extraneous issue. Yet this body wants to be taken seriously. How can you form an entity whose raison d’être is electoral reform and you stubbornly refuse to discuss the worst rigged election in post-Independence Guyana? Why Dr. Thomas and his colleague think Guyanese cannot see through him and his group. The ERG will not analyse or interpret what went on for five months last year, because it does not want to displease the PNC. I may be wrong but this is my interpretation.
Dr. Thomas asks, “How we can expect to make progress and prosper individually and collectively as a nation if we operate like this?” This question is relevant to the ERG itself. Why would the ruling party and civil society want to include the ERG in consultations about election reform when it takes partisan positions? Here is strong evidence of absurd partisanship of this group that calls itself independent. I quote Dr. Thomas once more, “What the (ERG is) objecting to is IRI’s role in the execution of the project. Their argument is that IRI’s role is inappropriate and unlikely to yield a successful outcome for Guyana.”
One word should be used to describe this statement – nonsense. It shows the deceptive attitude of the ERG. Electoral changes are not rocket science. No one from Greenland or Iceland or IRI or PRI or CRI can come to Guyana to assist in electoral transformations and birth legislation that will favour one party over the other. In electoral legislation that is just not possible. The need for transparency in the conduct of election and the reform of GECOM are not areas that could be manipulated by the Republican Institute. They are commonsensical dimensions.
Some examples are in order. The statements of polls (SoPs) should be distributed to the media, all contestants, all observers, and posted online as soon as the count is final in the particular polling station. Anyone who thinks the IRI can twist this is being dishonest. Secondly, the law should stipulate that the Chief Elections Officer is legally bound to accept each verified SoP. Thirdly, the international observers must be empowered to observe the counting of every ballot and must sign off on the final tabulation. More on the ERG later.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

---

---