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Elections – The rumblings begin
Editorial…
Kaieteur News- It was all but inevitable that the elections would come under some type of disagreement. In a matter of days, since President Ali’s announcement, the rumblings have started. There has also been a new component to the political theater that is part and parcel of elections in Guyana. The president’s September 1st election date has come in for scrutiny, and it has been choppy from then. The back and forth is now going on under a heavy crosswind. GECOM has its narratives, the Opposition PNCR its points of contention, and PPP/C Government agents their arguments, over the September 1st date.
The Opposition PNCR was the first to spot an area of concern with the date, and came out strongly.
Discussions and understandings were that GECOM would be ready on September 22nd at the earliest. The GECOM chairwoman said she is relying on the agency’s Chief Elections Officer. Others took the position that the president can announce a date without the consent of GECOM. It is only a week since President Ali came out on Independence Day and made his September 1st election day announcement, but there it is that the show is already in full swing. If these clashes are happening so early, then it doesn’t call for an intellectual superstar to conclude that a torrid time could be possibly in store here. The man to clear the air would be the Chief Elections Officer, but he has not shown his face nor said a word since this first sliver of election squabbling came before the public.
We at this paper make our concern known from now. If this is the unsteady state of the GECOM ship, and the hard differences of the main political contestants in this year’s elections, from now, then there is little optimism for the next three months. It would require a series of miracles for a smooth and quiet environment between today and September 1st to pull this piece of national business off acceptably. That is, if September 1st still holds firm as the national election date. Some section in one or the other leading competing groups is going to have a problem, or find something that is considered problematic. If this is where developments are right out of the starting gate, and only for a date, we think that our pessimism is well founded.
Though the wish is that matters were otherwise, what is there that inspires confidence that this election period will be one characterized by maturity, responsibility, and what is sober? Will the situation level off, or will it just head down the usual ugly road of before?
The focus to this point has been on the September 1st date, and it has not been encouraging. Looking past September 1st, (or whatever date is finalized, if another is deemed necessary), the signs and portents are not comforting.
Guyanese know from bad experiences, how the social environment degrades to the tense and sharp when the voting is over. It is on the days after the polls that the worst of Guyana, and the nastiest that Guyanese can be to each other, comes to light. This time around, the days don’t look as if they are going to be any different. There is plenty involved, we would say too much for contentment to prevail. For this is more than about voting and counting and declaring a winner. This is about oil, and that should say it all.
For in the current winner-take-all electoral system in operation locally, the victor gets to control all the oil spoils. The losers are forced to retreat to their respective camps and lick their wounds. Losing always has the bitterest of tastes, and it is a condition that intensifies in the years that stand in front, must be dealt with somehow. In a country sharply divided by ethnicity, economics, social standing, and even religion, this is not a good place on which to build a nation.
International observers will come in their droves, but they are less about Guyanese destiny, for they are more about oil security. Foreign investments must not be jeopardized, the investment climate must be stable. Guyanese will have to work out their traumas among themselves.
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