— but says it will withdraw from coalition if elections are not free and fair

The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) has supported President David Granger’s appointment of retired Justice James Patterson to the post of GECOM chair, but warned that if elections are not free and fair, it will publicly withdraw from the coalition.
The party, however, made it clear that if it were to go down that road, it would not support the PPP in any guise whatsoever.
The WPA in a statement said its conviction is that on strict construction, the selection procedure used so far has followed the letter of the law and the Constitution, if not the spirit.

“To be very clear, neither side is committed to a solution that is satisfactory to both. The political environment does not favour this. Further, their constituents who make up the bulk of the masses of Guyanese people, do not expect such an outcome,” the WPA said.
It also noted that it is important for the country that democratic forces do not allow the appointment of Justice Patterson to be read as a de facto depiction of the coalition’s collective intent to rig elections.

“This, from the WPA’s standpoint, is certainly not the case. Those who wish the coalition ill, would hope this becomes the normative public position, especially for activist civil society. While not everyone, there are clearly several rogues and charlatans who are deceptively promoting this false equivalence,” the party said.

The WPA also called out the PPP for fallacious peddling that Justice Patterson received $800,000 per month as advisor to the Minister of Legal Affairs when he was only being paid $20,000 and that he misrepresented that he was once Chief Justice of Grenada.
“The tactic of the PPP is to mislead the public. It does so by framing a false narrative as the truth with the hope that the public would respond negatively to everything that the government is doing. The ad hominem attacks and character assassination of Justice Patterson know no bounds. His Christian belief and practice, age, paying last rites to a colleague and friend all are fair game, despite comparators on the lists submitted by the Leader of the Opposition. At least, no viral complaints have yet been made against him as a thief, abuser and scoundrel, for comparators to be drawn,” the WPA pointed out.
It contended that the matter of the appointment of the chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is a very important one that should not be used for partisan political grandstanding and settling scores.

“It goes to the heart of our democratic process and should be treated as such by all responsible political and social forces. As a party, which participated in the process while in the opposition benches, WPA is fully aware of the patriotic responsibility that the success of the undertaking demands. Those who are charged with initiating the process have a duty to preserve its integrity,” the WPA said.
The party stressed that it believes that the PPP intentionally set out to compromise the spirit of the process with the hope of using the outcome to embarrass the government and further its own partisan agenda.

“WPA respects the right and civic responsibility of citizens and their organizations to interpret and challenge the president’s action from both a constitutional and a political standpoint—that is part of the democratic environment which our party has always struggled to uphold. But we warn against falling into the trap that is being set by the PPP and its allies,” the WPA warns.