Dear Editor,
The declaration from Minister Valerie Garrido-Lowe that elections will be held this year, sometime in December, according to “information from the President” (SN: 17/08/19), seems to be another attempt of the APNU+AFC to defy the most supreme law and hide from the electorate for as long as they can.
Editor, the Acting Chief Justice, Roxanne George-Wiltshire, on August 14, 2019, was clear that General and Regional Elections ought to have been held since March 21, 2019. Something all reasonable patriots knew from a mere reading of the Constitution.
That time has passed because of the APNU+AFC’s incredible excuses, which have been exposed as such. It is now incumbent on GECOM to address its readiness for elections to be held in the shortest possible time.
Guyanese are baffled at the length of time it is taking GECOM to make crucial decisions. Most remain hopeful that GECOM’s esteemed Chairperson, Justice Claudette Singh, will give effect to the spirit and intent of the provisions of Guyana’s most supreme law and the several judgments of the various courts interpreting that law, including our highest court. The Caribbean Court of Justice on July 12, 2019, said clearly that: “The Guyana Elections Commission (“GECOM”) has the responsibility to conduct that election and GECOM too must abide by the provisions of the Constitution.”
Those constitutional provisions are clear to any sensible, reasonable person, who is not looking for an excuse to dodge the holding of the overdue National and Regional Elections; that is, that elections must be held within three months after a government falls to a no-confidence motion or, in these circumstances, the shortest possible time thereafter.
The shortest possible time that allows for necessary amendments to the National Register of Registrants would be to host a Claims and Objections process. Engaging in such a process, fairly, does not require, in my considered view, until December. Indeed, December would make it one year since the government fell. The position of the parliamentary opposition has been clearly stated repeatedly. It echoes the views of the majority of Guyanese.
The ball is now in GECOM’s court. All eyes are on its chairperson and those commissioners. We are watching and waiting for them to act within the dictates of the Constitution. Our children, as grown-ups, will know what decisions they took and how it affected the nation, just as we now know what decisions were made in those horribly dark days of dictatorship and who made them.
Yours faithfully,
Priya Manickchand
