Dear Editor,
PLEASE permit me a space in your newspaper to respond to a letter that was published in the Guyana Times dated September 24, 2019 titled, “Granger unpatriotically pushed Guyana into a constitutional crisis” by Annie Baliram.
In her letter, Ms. Baliram stated, “The world recently witnessed how Mr. David Granger unpatriotically pushed Guyana into a constitutional crisis when he used strongman politics to disrespect and deny the constitutional rights of Guyanese.” Ms. Baliram, you are either suffering from amnesia or have on your partisan blinkers because, Article 106(7) stipulates that “Notwithstanding its defeat, the Government shall remain in office and shall hold an election within three months, or such longer period as the National Assembly shall by resolution supported by not less than two-thirds of the votes of all the elected members of the National Assembly determine, and shall resign after the President takes the oath of office following the election.

Hence, the government is legally and constitutionally in caretaker/interim mode. However, as the government continues to govern, the caretaker/interim Opposition Leader has abandoned his post along with his Members of Parliament (MP). These parliamentarians no longer care about day-to-day governance and the National Assembly, even though they continue to receive monthly salaries and daily enjoy the privileges/benefits of their office.
If the President is “illegal”, then, so is the Parliament and Leader of the Opposition and all the Opposition MPs are tainted with such illegality.
President David Granger and the APNU/AFC government have demonstrated the respect for Guyanese and the Constitution by respecting the article 106 (6) and (7) which cannot undermine or subvert article 177 (6), entrenched in our Constitution at the second deepest level.

I urge Ms. Baliram to please awaken from your slumber of ignorance and let me remind you about strongman politics, since strongman politics are the hallmark of the PPP/C’s government. This strongman politics that you ascribe to President Granger was on full display outside and inside of the Pegasus by the PPP protesters on September 19. If strongman politics were in effect, the protestors would have been shot in their backs, tear gassed like the sugar workers from Wales Estate and the protestors at Linden where Ron Sommerset, Shemroy Bouyea[and] Lyndon Lewis were shot dead. Lewis was shot in the back as were James Bond and ret’d Brigadier Edward Collins who have lived to tell the tale of strongman politics where there was no room for dissent.

These vengeful acts by the PPP government can clearly be articulated because during the Linden protests, the utility companies turned off water and electricity to Wismar and Linden to spite the protesters and violate their rights to protest.
Strongarm politics are a thing of the past under President Granger’s leadership and this government. I do not know of Forbes Burnham, suffice to say much has been written about him. However, anything coming from the PPP’s propaganda machine I will take with a pinch of salt. I have lived in Guyana all my life and what had obtained under the PPP is far different from what they profess now that they are trying to woo people to vote for them, but I have lived under the PPP/C having been born in 1997 and cannot be fooled by people trying to rewrite history.

Just to remind Ms. Baliram that, following the letter to the President by Chairman of the Elections Commission, Justice Claudette Singh, on September 19, 2019, indicating that “the Guyana Elections Commission will be able to deliver credible elections by the end of February 2020”, President David Granger has issued two proclamations for the holding of General and Regional Elections on Monday, March 02, 2020.
The President, by the power vested in him by Article 61 of the Constitution of Guyana, by proclamation, appointed the day for an election under Article 60 (2) and appointed March 02, 2020 as the day on which an election of members of the National Assembly shall be held.

So President Granger, by the power vested in him by the Constitution, is not squatting illegally nor has he undemocratically pushed Guyana into a constitutional crisis. Where is the crisis Ms Baliram? Is it a figment of you and your political handlers’ imagination?
President David Granger is the bona fide president of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana “and shall resign after the President takes the oath of office following the election.”
Regards
Ceion Rollox