Dear Editor,
A few persons are saying that the Police should not investigate the fraud and attempts to steal the last Elections by some GECOM and other electoral officers. They say that attempts to bring riggers to justice had never been done before and matters should continue that way.
The riggers should be investigated and brought to justice for the following reasons:
(i) It would illustrate to the young that crime does not pay and it would deter future riggers since they now know that jail terms face them for electoral fraud.
(ii) It uncovers novel rigging techniques against which Guyana would know how to guard in the future as for example printing more birth certificates than the population of the country so as to be used in house-to-house registration or for a Returning Officer to order the Presiding Officers under him not to put certain documents in the boxes so that votes could be nullified or election petitions could be brought. This type of fraud could be better elucidated if the Presiding Officers are charted so that they could exculpate themselves.
(iii) It would help constitutional reform to include such reforms that “No political party should ever again seize control of GECOM or the electoral machinery.” Or that no electoral loser should cling on to power on any excuse. International guarantees against such abuses should be in the new Constitution.
(iv) All persons involved in conducting national elections should be made to take an oath to uphold democracy and there should be prescribed penalties if they break their oath.
Yours faithfully,
Paul Validum Ramlochan