Government last Thursday used its majority to vote down an opposition motion to compensate the victims of last year’s polling day violence, citing, among other things, that no attention was given to the many persons who suffered in the days prior to and after elections.
“In my opinion there is no innocent party. We can all do better, both sides of the House. We can strive to ensure that the sins of the past should never be repeated,” Minister of Infrastructure David Patterson told the National Assembly.
According to Patterson he could not support the motion because it was limited to elections day. He asked about the activities which preceded elections day and why no call had been made for those affected persons. He made mention of an activist in Region Five who was hospitalized for two weeks and one in Enmore who was beaten thrice by a group of known supports of a political party.
He said he was sad that the debate was actually taking place in such a significant year in the country’s history when attention should be paid to healing the nation.
Patterson posited that a debate on the issue would resolve nothing and that the motion would have been a better one if it had called on all political parties to work together to end election day violence “once and for all. We have been plaqued and held back by this tragedy.”
Patterson made it clear that his government is against all forms of violence, not only that which occurred on elections day and government wants those responsible to be brought to justice. He pointed out that this is the responsibility of the police and courts and not the Parliament.
PPP MP Joseph Hamilton, the mover of the motion, detailed what had transpired and how people were affected by the violence. He was a victim, having been trapped in a Sophia house with a mob of persons outside hurling bottles and stones at the building and then setting fire to a neighbouring house and a number of vehicles. Hamilton’s vehicle was among those destroyed. The joint services had to be deployed to the area.
Hamilton said elections day violence had occurred at a number of polling stations on East Coast Demerara and Georgetown and he spoke at length about the Sophia incident. He said the victims were traumatized and that there was no doubt that a person’s home was firebombed and police had to intervene.
He said he was attempting to have victims speak to the National Assembly through the statements he was reading. Hamilton said one could not pretend that the violence did not happen.
He stressed that the state is responsible for the safety and security of its citizens without “favour affection or ill-will.”
Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman said that violence has been a feature of elections for decades not only on May 11, 2015.
He said that if fingers are pointed it will be found that “all sides have been violent against each other over the decades. …We are a violent society, one just has to look at recent events…We were born out of violence.”
He said that the motion has opened old wounds, but, “We on this side of the House will not get into tit for tat and naming.”
Leadership failed
Trotman said that in his view looking at the whole issue of elections violence needs “A commission of inquiry or a truth and reconciliation commission because that is the only way it will be settled. Coming here and scoring points is not going to do it.”
He drew the House’s attention to comments made by one of the victims of the Sophia attack who said that the violence was not political but rather criminal.
In ending, he noted that on May 11, 2015 the then PPP/C government was in charge of the armed forces not the APNU+AFC.
“If the leadership failed, it failed over there at a certain spot. If the security collapsed, it collapsed because of the poor leadership over there… The blame lies at your feet for the failures of the 11th of May,” he said pointing to the opposition benches in front of him.
He stressed that the APNU+AFC cannot be held accountable for the happenings of elections day as it was not in power then.
Meanwhile Minister of Citizenship Winston Felix agreed that members of all political parties must be allowed to campaign in all parts of the country free from “violence and terror.”
According to Felix, it is the responsibility of the state to protect its citizens through the provision of an efficient police service which is the responsibility of the government.
Felix stressed in his presentation that the removal of causes before the violence occurs must be done through proper intelligence activities from which potential hotspots will be identified.
“So that warning flags of impending conflicts may be observed at the earliest possible moment and steps taken to prevent them,” he said adding that after the PPP took office in 1992 electoral violence had become the norm; either before during or after an election.
Felix, former police commissioner said that one of the chief drivers of violence is rumours and perceptions; things which are not easily controlled and he made reference to the chants of residents who were convinced that ballot boxes were hidden inside a house located at `B’ Field Sophia. He said suspicion was aroused when residents saw Hamilton in front of the house with containers which resembled ballot boxes and when he was pressed for answers, gave no proper explanation.
“And so they felt that he and his companions were taking ballot boxes into that house… The people were annoyed they felt that an illegal polling station was being set up there and so they assembled around that house to bring attention to what they perceived to be an illegality which would have been taking place again,” he said. Earlier, he had made reference to residents in that community expressing concerns as to the large amount of votes the PPP had managed to amass there during previous elections.
He stressed that the elections day violence on May 11, 2015 was the result of the PPP’s actions.
Felix made it clear that he could not support the motion that was before the House.
“In effect, violence is to be abhorred. People were injured and we should sympathize with them, we should comfort them but when you administer the state where you cannot protect your citizens and you allow their properties to be destroyed by your negligence you should not come to this House and ask for compensation. We cannot reward you for negligence,” he said even as the opposition MP made sounds of disagreement.
“The motion before this House must fail. While we are in sympathy with those who suffered injury and destruction of property we know this falls squarely at the feet of those who ran the affairs of this country,” he stressed.
Opposition MPs Odinga Lumumba, Gillian Persaud and Ganga Persaud all presented arguments to show that the call for compensation was in order. The various forms of elections day violence were detailed and it was also stated that Gecom should have done an assessment of problematic areas beforehand and put measures in place to stem the occurrence of violent incidents.
Persaud said that the victims of the Sophia violence had engaged the present government and provided documentation. “We are not asking the House to compensate these people, this motion is saying that we are asking this House to agree that all victims of elections violence, properly investigated and what have you, should be compensated. Compensated by the state.”
He said unless this is done, persons may act out. “We have a monster. Every elections this elections violence is becoming more intense,” he said.
