-so as to hold on to power
PRESIDENTIAL Candidate of the PPP/C Donald Ramotar has slapped down suggestions that his party is stalling elections as a means of holding on to power, and expressed disappointment in the stance taken by the Joint Opposition parties over GECOM’s mulling the reopening of the registration process to facilitate those who do not have source documents. “The Opposition is saying that the PPP wants to postpone elections and extend its life in Government. That is not true; GECOM’s mechanism will not extend the life of the Government. We have absolutely no interest in extending [our life in Government] like the PNC did,” he said, speaking at a press conference held at PPP Robb Street headquarters, Freedom House yesterday.
“We are allaying the fears that we are not above board,” he said, adding that the PPP is astounded by the Joint Opposition’s about-face on whether the Guyana Elections Commission should reopen the registration process to facilitate the enfranchisement of many, when they had been calling for this all along.
Noting that both the PNCR and the Alliance for Change (AFC) had asked GECOM to find a way of getting people on the list of voters, as did the private sector, Ramotar said:
“[We find it] childish and petty if the [Opposition’s] only basis for doing this is because the PPP recognized this and made a request to GECOM. We would have hoped that there would have been consensus on this issue.”
He said GECOM initially had a list of 38,000 persons without source documents, but that number has now been significantly reduced, and that while the PPP would ideally like the registration process to be reopened, that decision rests solely with GECOM.
He, however, made the point that to eliminate further bickering and mistrust, the persons to be registered, if and when registration reopens, should be placed on a separate list, one which would be circulated to all stakeholders.
Noting that it is well nigh impossible to achieve 100 per cent registration, he said that in places such as the hinterland and other far-flung communities, small numbers may make a huge difference, because of the sparse nature of the populations there.
As to how he feels about what he terms the “level of pettiness and childishness” shown by the opposition parties by seeing the PPP as having ulterior motives in calling for the reopening of the ‘Claims and Objections’ exercise, Ramotar said: “They [done] start to see jumbie under the bed.”
Since the close of the ‘Claims and Objections’ period, he said, about 2000 people have received their source document, enabling them to be eligible for registration. He said that while the General Registrar’s Office has worked hard, the scope and magnitude of the work was underestimated.
Speaking at the press conference, Robert Persaud, a member of the Executive Committee of the PPP conceded that it was the members of the Joint Opposition who first brought to light the issue of people not being able to register because of the lack of source documents, a claim that the ruling party found to be genuine, though it was less strident in pointing this out to the relevant authority.
“The PPP/C never criticized the Opposition for representing this matter,” he said.
And, referring to the hitherto ineligible persons present at the press conference, Persaud said: “These are not jumbies.”
To prove his point that there were “real people,” Persaud asked them to display their ID cards that would have been acquired during the registration process for the last elections in 2006.