Politics
Granger says elections will be on March 2nd: President David Granger last week announced that general and regional elections will be held on March 2nd, 2020, whether or not the opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) returns to Parliament and grants an extension. On Wednesday in an address to the nation, Granger cited March 2, 2020 as the earliest date for general elections but did not issue a proclamation of that date as is legally required and fuelled further doubts about the way forward when he insisted that Parliament must meet to grant an extension of the period for polls, a demand the opposition PPP/C had repeatedly said was out of the question. However when he was questioned on Thursday, the President said that while his choice of words were conditional the date is not. “Elections will be held on the 2nd March. That is the advice I received. I did not want to use perhaps more definitive terms, because I expected that in accordance with the Constitution, we would have to go to Parliament, but if the Opposition doesn’t go to Parliament, well we will abide by what I said last night. Elections will be on the 2nd March. That is as definitive as I can get,” he told reporters at the Cyril Potter College of Education. Granger, who has come under mounting pressure from the international community to name a date and has had his government described as unconstitutional, further said that he was “quite guarded” in his remarks to give “the commission an opportunity to publicize its own work schedule.”
Persons on preliminary voters’ list required to verify registration, GECOM order says: The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on Friday announced that all potential voters for the 2020 elections must verify their registration during the extended Claims and Objections (C&O) process, which begins on October 1st, sparking a furore among opposition-nominated commissioners who said the move was illegal. It has never been a requirement for persons on a preliminary voters’ list to verify their identity with a registration office and there was no explanation for the change by the commission. “During this exercise, every person whose name appear[s] on the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE) must visit the Registration office in their respective area with their National Identification Card to verify their registration record in order to be included in the Official List of Electors (OLE),” the Public Relations Officer Yolanda Ward said in a statement issued on Friday. The statement is a direct reference to the wording of the recently gazetted National Registration (Residents) Order No. 70 of 2019. The order states in its second schedule that the days on which persons listed on the Preliminary List are to visit the Registration Office… to verify his/her registration record for inclusion on the Official List of Electors (OLE) will be October 1 to November 11, 2019. Responding to questions from Stabroek News, Ward emphasised that as per the Order those who do not verify their registration will not be included in the OLE. This new GECOM order will be seen as a bid to impose a residency requirement for voting as Attorney General Basil Williams has been trying to accomplish in court. Opposition-nominated members of the commission have roundly condemned this move, labelling it as “hogwash”. “This can only be seen as an attempt to foist another version of house-to-house on the citizens of this nation,” Commissioner Sase Gunraj declared during an urgent press conference yesterday. He stressed that this was never a position taken by the commission “either in whole or in part,” contending that in fact it was never discussed at the level of the commission. Gunraj also suggested that the order contravenes the ruling of Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire which states that the removal of names from the list would be unconstitutional unless said persons are deceased or otherwise disqualified under Article 159 (2) (3) or (4).
Commonwealth SG urges Granger, stakeholders to restore constitutional rule: Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland last Monday urged President David Granger and “all relevant stakeholders and institutions” to restore constitutional rule in Guyana by immediately setting an early election date in accordance with its constitution, enabling elections to be held without further delay. Scotland’s statement added to the mounting pressure on Granger and his APNU+AFC government, which had already been taken to task on the matter by the US, the UK, the European Union and the Bar Council of the Guyana Bar Association. In a statement, Common-wealth said that the Secretary-General has taken note of the 18 June 2019 ruling of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) and its consequential orders of 12 July 2019. “The CCJ’s ruling was clear that the Guyana Constitution sets out certain requirements for the time of an election after the valid passing of a no confidence motion. The rule of law and constitutional governance are fundamental Common-wealth values to which Guyana has subscribed. In this regard, and in accordance with the ruling of the CCJ, a general election in Guyana is now constitutionally overdue. A general election should be held in accordance with the unambiguous constitutional imperative to do so,” it said.
Crime
Roger Khan released on bail: Convicted drug trafficker Roger Khan, who was detained by the police for questioning in relation to the murders of political activist Ronald Waddell and boxing coach Donald Allison, was released from police custody last Tuesday, September 24th. Khan, who was deported to Guyana after serving almost 10 years of a 15 year sentence for drug trafficking and witness tampering, was held for 72-hours prior to being released without charge but on $200,000 station bail.
Hugh Denbow found strangled in Sophia home: Former Chairman of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) Board, Hugh Denbow died on Monday evening, hours after he was found trussed in his North Sophia home following a suspected home invasion. Denbow, a 63-year-old engineer was found in an unconscious state around 11.30 am on Monday with his hands, feet and neck tied together in the kitchen area of his Lot 1 Area D Plantation Sophia, Georgetown home, which he occupied alone. Denbow was transported to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where he succumbed around 8 pm on Monday while receiving medical attention. An autopsy subsequently confirmed that he had been strangled.
Ann’s Grove pensioner dies in hospital two weeks after bandit attack: Eighty-two-year-old Leroy Peters died at a city hospital on Wednesday, two weeks after he was allegedly beaten by bandit/s who invaded his Ann’s Grove, East Coast Demerara home. Peters, also known as John Wayne, was hospitalised in a critical condition at a private hospital following the incident, which occurred sometime between September 10th and September 12th.
NA labourer stabbed to death: A New Amsterdam man was fatally stabbed on Sunday morning. The body of Delroy James, 33, of Patrick Dam, Angoy’s Avenue, New Amsterdam, was discovered sometime around 3.30 am. James, a labourer, left home with two persons known to him on Saturday evening, to go club hopping. At a popular bar on Main Street, them and several men, which led to a scuffle. It is suspected that it was then that James was stabbed. It is not clear what happened subsequently but he was pronounced dead on arrival at the New Amsterdam Public Hospital. In 2011, James had been charged with murder but the charge was dismissed the following year.
‘Cash jet’ pilot gets 13 years for cocaine trafficking, money laundering: Guyanese Khamraj Lall, the pilot who smuggled large quantities of cocaine and currency between Guyana and the United States using his private jet, was yesterday sentenced to 13 years in jail for trafficking hundreds of pounds of cocaine into New Jersey and New York and laundering over US$10.2 million in proceeds from the drug trade. U.S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson imposed the sentence on Lall, 52, of Ringwood, New Jersey, yesterday day in a Trenton, New Jersey federal court, according to a news release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey. In addition to the prison term, Judge Thompson sentenced Lall to five years of supervised release.
Brazilian woman burnt in mining camp attack succumbs: Maria Pereira Da Silva, the Brazilian national who along with her husband was allegedly set on fire while they were asleep at their camp at Toroparu Landing, in Region Seven, has succumbed to her injuries. Divisional Commander Kevin Adonis yesterday confirmed to Stabroek News that 30-year-old Da Silva succumbed on Thursday afternoon at the Georgetown Public Hospital. Her husband, Lyndon Joseph, 35, a dredge owner of Karrau Village, Region Seven and Jangotown, Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara, remains warded at the hospital. His condition is listed as serious. The couple were allegedly set on fire following a confrontation with a man at their camp.
Border case
World Court sets oral hearings on jurisdiction in Guyana-Venezuela border controversy case: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has set a date for Oral Hearings on jurisdiction in the case of the long-running border controversy between this country and Venezuela. According to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the ICJ has notified Guyana that hearings will be held in The Hague, the Netherlands from March 23 to 27, 2020. It will determine whether the Court has jurisdiction over the case filed by Guyana on March 29, 2018 to obtain from the Court a final and binding judgment that the 1899 Arbitral Award, which established the location of the land boundary between then-British Guiana and Venezuela, remains valid and binding, and that Guyana’s Essequibo region belongs to Guyana, and not Venezuela. Guyana brought its case to the Court following the decision by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, in January 2018, that the controversy between Guyana and Venezuela should be decided by the World Court. In taking his decision, the Secretary-General was exercising the power vested in him in the 1966 Geneva Agreement between Guyana, Venezuela and the United Kingdom to decide how the controversy should be settled. While Venezuela has claimed, in a letter to the Court, that the Secretary-General exceeded his authority under the Geneva Agreement, and that the Court therefore lacks jurisdiction to adjudicate Guyana’s lawsuit, Guyana has submitted a Memorial refuting these arguments and demonstrating that the Court has jurisdiction.
Economy
Central Bank denies Republic Bank’s bid for Scotiabank: The Bank of Guyana (BoG) has rejected Republic Bank’s application for the acquisition of ScotiaBank while citing a number of concerns. Minister of Finance Winston Jordan told Stabroek News on Tuesday that Cabinet was alerted to letters that BoG Governor Dr Gobind Ganga would have dispatched to the Trinidad-headquartered Republic Bank and Scotiabank “and also the letter that was written to me, indicating that having done their examination and taking all the circumstances into consideration that they [BoG] could not approve the application.” He added, “This was discussed at Cabinet this morning and Cabinet concurred with the Governor’s pronouncement and they agreed that the reasons given were important reasons and the critical one being concentration, the risks involved and so on, AML/CFT [Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting the Financing of Terrorism] considerations, the lack of supervisory capacity by the bank itself; they are now building that capacity and so on. So when you take all of that into consideration, we did not feel that this application would be in Guyana’s best interest.” Republic Bank subsequently expressed disappointment at a decision, while ScotiaBank announced that it will continue its business as normal while focusing on a long-term solution for its employees and customers.
Fire
Chinese nationals die in Vreed-en-Hoop fire: Two Chinese nationals died last Sunday in an early morning fire that ravaged the Public Road, Vreed-en-Hoop home and supermarket they rented, along with three other buildings, all of which housed various businesses. They were identified as Qui Chong Qing, 45, and Qiu Yu Qing, 53, who operated the Wishful Supermarket. Preliminary investigations, Fire Chief Marlon Gentle has said, point to the fire likely having started because of an electrical problem in the supermarket. “We suspect that it started by some freezers and some electrical coolers. We understand that yesterday [Saturday], the owner and someone came to fix it. It is in that same area that all evidence shows that [the fire] started there,” Gentle said. The fire left at least 22 persons jobless and business owners counting millions of dollars in losses.
