President Ramotar’s brief announcement on Saturday that General Elections will be called sometime next year underlined in stark terms that he and his government are completely out of touch with their responsibilities and have failed to apprehend the need for stable governance of the country.
Whenever an incumbent admits that it cannot continue in office either because the legislature is against it or it has lost key members of its government, it immediately begins to lose legitimacy and a power vacuum inexorably begins to open and deepen day by day. Furthermore, each and every one of its actions and particularly its spending become eminent subjects for close scrutiny and disputation by all stakeholders. In these conditions, government and governance become more and more tenuous. Such a state is hardly beneficial to constructive decision making, the investment climate and breeds dissatisfaction and disaffection particularly among those who are aggrieved at the government – in this case the majority of the people who voted at the last general elections.
Yet, this is exactly what was gifted to the Guyanese public on Saturday for the Christmas season by President Ramotar. By refusing to indicate the period in which he wanted to call general elections and then letting the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) immediately begin putting its machinery in place, the President has added to the political instability created when he unthinkingly suspended the legislative branch of government on November 10.
There was an airiness and nonchalance about the President’s remarks at State House on Saturday which many cynics will attribute to the view that the PPP and President Ramotar are not yet done with the 10th Parliament and want to stretch out their occupation of it for as long as they can. Why else would the President not have announced the period that he was aiming at? If he himself recognises that his government is not viable then he must call the election soonest.
His announcement on Saturday may have been intended more for the international audience. Caricom, as lacklustre as it has been in periods of crises in its member states, could ill afford the continuation of its stony silence on undemocratic measures in the country in which it is headquartered. President Ramotar’s announcement may have been timed to defuse any possible discussion today of the Guyana situation at the Fifth Summit of the Heads of Government of Caricom and Cuba which takes place in Havana.
There were other signs of the administration’s amateurish political manoeuvring. While Guyanese are at one in enjoying Christmas to the fullest, they would hardly be opposed to allowing a motion of no confidence against the government – as enshrined in the constitution – from being debated. The government simply doesn’t want its history to be backlit by the inconvenient truth that its minority status caused it to lose office. By blocking the motion of no-confidence despite the earlier bluster about being ready for it, President Ramotar’s government is also trying to control the timetable for general elections.
Even more disturbing was the President’s casual remark that “Early in the New Year, I intend to announce further steps towards the direction of General and Regional Elections in Guyana. In the meantime, I will be consulting GECOM on its readiness and Guyanese can get on with the business of having an enjoyable Christmas.”
It has been reported ad nauseam that GECOM has said that it is ready and all that is needed is a signal to begin rolling out its work programme. The President’s remarks about “readiness” appear to be fuel for the weekly polemics which have been launched by the party’s General Secretary, Mr Rohee and which are clearly intended for some ulterior motive. GECOM should take the initiative of advising the public again about its state of readiness as long as the President names a date. It should also state whether it has access to the required election materiel and resources to administer the election. Election watchers here will no doubt perceive that it could be months before the Ramotar administration gets around to naming a date and the other factor that would come into play would be the need for a budget by April, 2015.
Swedish politics last week demonstrated the bruising reality for minority governments except that in its case, just two months in office and having failed to have his first budget passed, the Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven declared that new elections were necessary and fixed March as the date. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking a clear mandate from voters and last week set new elections for March 17. These examples and the import of limiting instability seem to have escaped President Ramotar.
Members of the public will have legitimate concerns about how and in what quantities the government will spend taxpayers’ money between this point and the summoning of general elections. There will be particular concern about the government abusing state resources in the conduct of its campaign for General elections. With Parliament not functioning, there will be little or no effective non-government assessment of these projects and moneys expended. If President Ramotar is serious about properly accounting for taxpayer monies he should invite the Office of the Auditor General to undertake detailed accounting and monitoring of expenditure in this period notwithstanding the fact that a previous attempt at this during the Great Flood of 2005 failed spectacularly.
The country has been brought to the brink of early elections by the failure of its leaders to arrive at genuine compromises in the interest of the people. The people now stand to lose even more from the stalemate and uncertainty that will ensue in this holding period. President Ramotar must move swiftly to name a realistic date for General Elections so that the people of this country can again attempt to seek visionary leadership.
