Rohee Responds to Alexander

Nov 08, 2024 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Notwithstanding Vincent Alexander’s assertion a few weeks ago that; “People should not acquiesce to any election that is not conducted after these things are implemented,” he persists with what appears to be an obsession with certain electoral matters that bother him so much so that they appear to weigh heavily on his thinking and his passion to hold on to a tradition of his dead predecessors, who held that they were ordained to rule over others.

This thinking is of his own, as well as that of his political bosses whose efforts are aimed at shaping and dominating the 2025 elections narrative using mainstream and social media to do so.

Meanwhile, observers are trying to figure out what is it that Alexander and company are up to;

Are they trying to embarrass GECOM’S chairman publicly and to pressure her to kowtow to their demands whatever those demands might be?

Since the chairman is not known for arbitrariness, making rash, unilateral or any decision for that matter without sharing her views on the issue at hand with all six commissioners and requesting a feed-back from them, indications are that her shield to fend off the critics and pessimists will be to ensure that in the absence of consensus, majority rule and democratic governance prevails at GECOM.

Are they trying to shrug off references to their electoral rap sheet for facilitating rigged elections and to ride out any such references till November 2025?

This sounds more like easy come easy go. What is desired by the APNU+AFC is well-nigh impossible since, what is done is done. While it may be patched over, the stain cannot be changed nor washed away. A deep sense of mistrust of the PNC’s model of governance continues to haunt the nation;

Are they trying to project themselves as the victim rather than the perpetrator of rigged election having been charged for attempted larceny of elections results?

This pitch is not new may but strained. Nevertheless, it smacks of moral turpitude. It is aimed at confusing rather than confessing to electoral crimes committed against the Guyanese electorate. It is a striking manifestation of self-preoccupation, and a poor effort at psyops that has no chance of success. The much-enlightened public knows better; the electorate will not be fooled again this time around. The expression “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me,” has found its rightful place in the hearts and minds of right-thinking Guyanese.

With all the opposition noises demanding a fresh round of house-to-house voter registration that envisages digital fingerprint capture aimed at countering ‘voter fraud’ that will result in the production of an ‘unbloated’ voters’ list, does this mean the APNU+AFC really want free and fair elections?

Lest we forget that looks can be deceiving, on the surface, this pursuit appears plausible. Truth be told, coming from the PNC this is hard to believe since it lacks sincerity and masks ugly intentions. The PNC is no ethical protector nor defender of the sanctity of the ballot box. To be an ethical protector, the PNC must begin with itself by stripping away its electoral ignominies of the past. As for its future, it must abandon the sneaky attempt to use voter impersonation as the raison d’etre for the introduction of digital fingerprint capture as the basis for a completely new house-to-house registration exercise to produce a fresh national register of registrants from which will emerge a voters’ list.

When persons whose names appear on that list turn up to vote on E-day, they will be subject to biometric fingerprint identification at polling stations. However, this new approach will require passage of legislation. If this lengthy process goes through, three things can happen; first, the PNC would have achieved its main objective as regards biometrics; second, many can be disenfranchised and third, elections ‘2025 could be postponed beyond the constitutionally due year.

Do the PNC genuinely want GECOM to fulfill its constitutional mandate in time for elections 2025?

First of all, based on public statements and letters, it is obvious that Commissioner Alexander is neither comfortable with nor appreciative of the three plus four company to which he has been assigned. While serving in that capacity, and through media channels, a sustained campaign is being waged to instill fear and distrust amongst the electorate about GECOM’s creditworthiness. No effort is spared to brow beat GECOM into submission, to prove its CEO and DCEO incompetent and to exercise dominance over the proceedings of and matters under consideration at the body.

Are APNU+AFC mouthpieces spouting euphemistic language about democracy and expressing laissez-faire optimism about winning the next election because they have convinced themselves that they have a chance of doing so?

Clearly, this is an elusive dream. Winning a free and fair election in Guyana, requires more than empty talk, delusional optimism and wishful thinking. It is more about hard work, winning and maintaining the confidence and broad support of all classes and social strata in Guyanese society; the party that wins an election would have done so because of its record for delivery of goods and services and uplifting the well-being of the people while in government. Presently, none of the opposition parties have what wining a free and fair elections calls for…credibility!

Could it be, that the PNC may be calculating that should they not win, at the minimum, they must not return to parliament with a significantly reduced number of seats?

This is a strong possibility since the APNU+AFC’s performance in government was dismal; their insensitive behaviour and modus operandi in favour of ‘the good life’ for an elitist cabal, left thousands of coalition supporters frustrated and alienated and to fend for themselves in an economy characterised by self-aggrandisement, plantain chips, and metal arches;

Could the electoral strategy of the PNC be aimed at ensuring that the PPP/C returns to parliament as a minority government?

Here, a small dose of Marxism that might prove useful if not is applicable; ‘History repeats itself first (in 1964) as a tragedy and the second time (in 2015) as a farce.’ Shades of the PNC and APNU+AFC who had ‘draped themselves in the political, rhetorical and ideological trappings of previous generations, but has since assumed a farcical form (as APNU) when originally (as PNC) they had ‘failed tragically.’

Hopefully, this Q&A session would have been helpful to the three-card election schemers at Congress Place who fail to recognize the crucial difference between the informed and uninformed, a reasoned and unreasoned, a responsible and irresponsible decision-makers and those who chose to hide behind a web of deception and recourse to a patently misplaced passion for a menu of measures at GECOM labelled reforms at the expense of reason.

 

Yours faithfully,

Clement J. Rohee

(Rohee Responds to Alexander)

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• 2025 elections, APNU+AFC, GECOM’S chairman, larceny of elections, Vincent Alexander’s

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