“Yes: reforms can ‘do something about election rigging”

Mar 09, 2024 Letters

Dear Editor,

The late eminent political theorist Samuel P Huntington stated that ‘Elections, open, free and fair, are the essence of democracy, the inescapable sine qua non. Governments produced by elections may be inefficient, corrupt, shortsighted, irresponsible, dominated by special interests, and incapable of adopting policies demanded by the public good.

These qualities make such governments undesirable, but they do not make them undemocratic’ (Fareed Zakaria 2007 – “The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad” WW Norton). So, Dr. Randy Persaud, whatever you mean by ‘The wickedest act in democratic politics is election rigging:’ democracy is merely a method of decision making that does not necessarily result in good governance and at the level of the state neither can it necessarily be equated with majority rule.

Democratic governments may be considered, as the PPP is in the view of half this country, most ‘undesirable’. Guyana is classified in the world’s best and most comprehensive index as an ‘electoral democracy- minus’ i.e. a democracy without the necessary political virtues and verging upon being an autocracy (V-Dem 2024 report). When a regime becomes ‘undesirable’ elections rigging might be the least of its problems as affected citizens may resort to arms with the loss of thousands of lives. We are seeing this at present in Israel and saw this not so long ago in Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Fiji, etc. ‘Can constitutional reform do something about election rigging attempts?’ (KN: 06/03/2024).

Yes, Dr. Persaud, by eliminating the reason for it. A good example of this is that once communism was no longer a threat, the West stopped supporting elections manipulations in Guyana, resulting in the so-called ‘return’ to democracy in 1992! Normally, political parties in all competitive systems seek advantage by cutting corners: this is a natural outcome of competitive environments. However, the PPP and PNC are in a different category: they are ethnic political parties that once in government in a competitive democratic electoral system are expected and will give priority to the interest of their group. When by way of migration, etc. the PPP began to lose its natural ethnic majority that under the present winner-takes-all system allowed it to easily take government, it became involved in wholesale elections rigging. Four years on and election petitions in relation to the 2020 general and regional elections are still before the courts. In a competitive democratic highly ethnically divided society such as Guyana, politicians are forced to secure group interest if they are to survive.

Super majorities (2/3, etc.), shared governance and other requirements will force cooperation by making it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for regimes to prioritise their ethnic constituencies.

Please spare me the obfuscations about ‘gridlock’ and the need for strong opposition. The former will be reduced as the parties come to realise they must work together. In any case, better gridlock than ethnic discrimination! Reforms can also focus upon having in place a useful parliamentary opposition, but if in bygone days this had some resonance, the rise of unrefereed social media has made the concern one of too much rather than too little opposition. I thought DR. Persaud would have been able to recognize that my use of the term ‘evil’ was not an ‘addition’ but merely a synonym for the natural activities of ‘devils, bastards, demons!’

Dr. Henry Jeffrey

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dominated, Dr Henry Jeffrey, Elections, governance, rigging

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