Elections rigging and life sentences

Nov 11, 2021 Letters

Dear Editor,

Kaieteur News – The media captions certainly have been arresting. Possible life sentences for those found guilty of elections rigging, and other varieties of electoral frauds. My thoughts are shared.
I am all for harsh sentences to deter elections skullduggeries, even as I think that the maximum of life sentences is way out there, definitely on the draconian side. On the surface, such sound as a likely deterrent, but I introduce to the public, what I loosely term the: a) aspects of unmentionable elections-related matters; b) the notions of uncontemplated things; and c) the biggest of all, the law of unintended consequences.
Rigging in Guyana is not limited to the post voting process alone. The underpinnings of voter registrations, hence voting eligibility, have been subject to question and controversy. Neither of the major parties is untainted. What about those responsible for execution on the ground, and how about going all the way up to the intellectual composers and arrangers of such elections’ felonies, or what ought to be? It does not require any particular brightness to trace such illegality, pass responsible minister to the sitting president, whoever he or she is, at the time. If we are talking life sentences, then let’s apply those where should rightly terminate, immunities and all. The only sane citizen left to lead this country would be me (and I am out), since all others from top to bottom are and would be polluted; on this I am absolute.
I take elsewhere. Presently, the PPP clearly has the numbers, which means life sentences for rigging would apply to only PNC operators, for all practical purposes. In view of the demographics and politics of Guyana, I would venture that there are grounds to label this a racial and racist proposal. Since I have gone so far, I can’t stop now; thus, I proceed.
Editor, if a contestant is forced to function in an elections context with the ultimate of a life sentence hanging over his or her head, then matters distil to this hard place. There is nothing to lose. Numerically, I am going to lose (placing myself in the mix); judicially, I am going to lose and, therefore, all the criminally electorally stops must be pulled out and put into motion. Que sera, sera! As an elections officer, operating under such a Sword of Damocles, why not? Let the chips fall. My visions and provocations would be for, and geared towards, all those in a losing constituency also condemned to what amounts to nothing less than a tribal life sentence, and the significance of that, especially in a time of grand developments. To repeat myself: have we contemplated these things in our excitement? Have we measured the genie being shaped and taking form in the bottle and to be let out?
I restate this in a different way: if I am a voter with zero triumphant probability, then I am, for all intent, condemned to a life sentence also, alongside those who go to criminal lengths to deliver for me. I have nothing to lose, but to rally around those championing me. Have we thought of this sleeping whirlwind? One that pits a sizable segment of the population to places untravelled and unstudied? The punitive has a self-satisfying ring to it; a word of caution: it cuts in other ways.

Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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