Although the court has not granted a stay of the successful motion of no confidence which triggered a 90-day timeframe for the holding of general elections, the Alliance for Change (AFC) does not believe polls will be held by March 22nd.
As such, the party is awaiting the outcome of two cases before the courts and a meeting by government and opposition officials with GECOM on its preparedness for the holding of elections and thinks the results of those two issues would put elections outside of the 90-day timeframe.
“We are very much prepared for an elections but we will have the elections, I understand, as was agreed to in the Presidential meeting, when of course the two important matters: the court case and GECOM’s readiness, are known,” Chairman of the Party, Khemraj Ramjattan yesterday told a press conference held at the AFC’s Headquarters in Kitty. He also noted that while the AFC believes that the court matters should be expeditiously addressed, the party supports both cases “going right up to the CCJ (Caribbean Court of Justice)”.
“The Alliance for Change is ready for elections in any point and time that the court agrees that it should proceed,” Party General Secretary Marlon Williams later added.
Reading from a prepared statement, Ramjattan said that the AFC is pleased with the maturity displayed by the respective sides at the meeting on January 9th of President David Granger and his team of ministers and the Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo and his team.
“The party notes and is heartened by statements following the meeting that the sanctity of government remains and trusts that this political maturity will hold in the coming weeks and months as the matter continues to unfold. The party is pleased with the court proceedings yesterday (Tuesday), particularly with regard to the court’s determination to treat with the matter expeditiously and looks forward to the ruling of the court. The AFC reaffirms that the Coalition remains strong and reassures all Guyanese that the party is firmly committed to the rule of law and remains Guyana’s largest multi-ethnic party which continues to be unwavering in pursuit of representing the interest of all Guyanese,” he said.
Ramjattan and party executive Catherine Hughes said that the AFC would be going into the next election again as a coalition.
“We have indicated that we are prepared to go as a coalition because the chances are better there than going separately” Ramjattan stated.
And while the AFC says it will be going into the next General Elections as a coalition and is prepared should a date be soon set, it believes it is too early to determine if it will support President David Granger for a second term.
Ramjattan said that the party believes that the ratio of ministers in the current Cummingsburg Agreement could still be used going forward for this elections but both he and Hughes said that it was too early to decide on the party’s support of a president.
“That is too soon,” Ramjattan replied when asked about the party’s support for Granger at the next elections. Hughes quickly added, “We are absolutely not there right now. We hope that President Granger continues the speedy recovery he is making….we continue to wish him the best. We have no idea when the election is going to be so we are not in a position to answer that right now.”
Implications and consequences
Given the current state of affairs, Ramjattan said that he does not believe that elections would be held in the 90-day timeframe as he does not think that GECOM would be able to complete the house-to-house registration that both the APNU+AFC and PPP/C had committed to last year and had pledged to appropriate $3B towards.
“Both the president and the opposition teams agreed that we will have to send two plenipotentiaries to GECOM’s chairman for purposes of verifying if they are ready. As you know … both parties agreed to spend approximately $3B on a house-to-house registration process in 2019. We did not budget not a dollar for elections and we cannot go now and use money (set aside) for house-to-house registration. So we will have to have a reconvening of parliament with the opposition there to pass money and if they don’t want to come we have to pass it without (them using) 33. That is article 168…those present voting we can pass another allocation for that. But at this stage, we are of the view that there should be a house-to-house registration that we allocated monies for,” he said.
“When you come to bring a NCM (No Confidence Motion). You don’t just look at the 90-day period, you look at the implications of that and the consequences of that. What are the consequences? We are not like Canada and other western democracies where when a NCM is had you immediately can go into an election. There are lots of 15 year olds then that are now 18 years old, there are a lot of dead people on that list…thousands of people and when you check that list all of that has to be corrected. The GECOM had also indicated that every seven years it would do a house-to-house registration and the PPP agreed. That is why they said yes to that three billion dollars. So what, are we going to retract on that and disenfranchise a lot of people that are 18 years old? We are not going to cleanse the list of all the people that have died? It is important that all of that be understood that we are not just running in. Sometimes you run in with a list that is defective and you win the election and they say the list was rigged. Damn if you do damn if you don’t. We have a situation where the plenipotentiaries have to go and ask the chairman if he is ready,” he added.
The AFC, he said, believes that it still has the same bargaining power as when it signed the Cummingsburg Accord in 2015 and will do its best negotiating this year. “We will be do our best at negotiating, the Cummingsburg Accord is still in existence and indeed it will be a new scenario if we have to hold elections…indeed I feel we are in a strong position. Our support groups right across the country are with us and are growing,” he said.
Contesting on its own at Local Government Elections in November last year, the party took a drubbing in key parts of the country and did not contest in other parts.
‘Chastised’
Ramjattan said that while some will chastise his party for not doing enough and holding to promises made during their campaign for the three years it has been in office, they did the best in the circumstances. He pointed to constitutional reform saying that much was done and that the process could still be completed before the next elections. Critics would strongly disagree with his assertion.
“The prime minister (Moses Nagamootoo) tried his best in dealing with the situation of these [constitutional] reforms. We had the matter sent to the constitutional reform committee and that was done and it has been there. That does not mean that we do not want constitutional reform but so many other things took on priorities. There was sugar, the budget…we are being so massacred for constitutional reform when for 23 years nothing happened but (people) want so much out of a three-year administration. Probably it was us causing hopes to be that high it didn’t happen,” he said.
“We still can get on with the business of constitutional reform and go a very long way, notwithstanding the delays you would have seen and we are going to proceed with it. We have gone a very far way inside of that constitutional reform committee in the National Assembly and we will make sure that consultative bill be approved and goes back to the larger parliament as soon as possible,” he added.
The party has a National Executive Council meeting scheduled for the 26th of this month and will discuss elections among other issues.
This year, the NEC will be expanded to include municipal and regional councillors and other regional and district officials from across the country along with attendance by representatives of the Diaspora.
