Dear Editor
THERE was never a doubt that what retired Justice James Patterson’s earlier reports captioned, “Mischief afoot”, in a Guyana Chronicle story of October 06, 2018, illustrated sinister measures that came from both internal and external sources, directed towards plots to stymie the Guyana Election Commission’s (GECOM) electoral work. He was clear, and unambiguous in his details about the political opposition forces that were bent on bringing his stewardship to an end.

However, Commissioner Desmond Trotman’s account, in the Guyana Chronicle of October 24, 2018, definitely conveys the unadulterated understanding that war has indeed been declared, not only against the GECOM, but pin-pointedly against its chairman and chief elections officer. He is correct as to the genesis of this orchestrated attempt when the current chairman was initially appointed.

I stand to be corrected when I say that it was the private media, significantly Stabroek News, that began with the view that since Patterson’s appointment had been unilateral because it did not follow the constitutional stipulation of selecting an appointee from any of the lists submitted by the leader of the opposition, then it was setting the stage for rigged elections. This was this media house’s position via a page one comment. It was a dishonest line to disseminate, since there was, and still is no evidence to substantiate such a misleading claim.

But the Appeal Court has vindicated the President’s decision, unanimously, first ruled on successfully in the High Court. Editor, I have no doubt that it will be further upheld by the Caribbean Court of Justice(CCJ), should the PPP/C seek further adjudication.
This is where I condemn the naked hypocrisy of the Stabroek News and the private press, as far as GECOM is concerned and those whose evil and wicked machinations are seeking to undermine the offices of both chairman and CEO.

There is no doubt that the line taken against this seminal constitutional body is inherently racist, out of a traditional view that Afro-Guyanese are not competent, or cannot be trusted to manage its administrative affairs. It would seem, that as far as the PPP/C is concerned, only Indo-Guyanese should be trusted to manage its electoral preparations and issue its results; even if it has to be falsified, as former CEO Gocool Boodhoo attempted to do in 2011.

Of course there was Dr. Steve Surujbally as former chairman whose professionalism, along with other key Afro-Guyanese officials, who presided over elections when the PPP/C won. However, from the time of 2011, when the then APNU, and AFC combined and gained the one-seat parliamentary majority, Dr. Surujbally became the constant target of unfair attacks and other forms of scurrilous vilification. As far as the PPP/C was concerned, Surujbally had been expected to cast his deciding vote against the removal of Gocool Boodhoo, who was caught red-handed committing blatant rigging, which would have given the PPP/C a single-seat advantage.

This particular act underlines the policy of a party which refuses to hold its ethnic kith and kin responsible for any act of impropriety committed. One has to only examine this party’s incessant howls about “witch-hunting”, when any of its membership and friends are placed before the courts.

The central point. What is being witnessed is an attack on the nation’s democracy, by a daily slew of filthy lies and other misleading methods orchestrated by a party that is determined to create an atmosphere that would bring about the resignations of the two most senior GECOM officials.

I see no reason to doubt the very serious Commissioner Desmond Trotman, who has given a direct, candid, and revealing analysis which supports that of the chairman’s earlier public statements. Besides, it fits into a pattern that commenced since 2011, as illustrated above; except, that it has now taken on a vileness that grows desperate by the day. One has to only observe the reaction of the PPP/C when it loses a judicial matter; even the judges are not spared its nasty attacks.

This is playing with dangerous fire, since the intention is to use ethnicity as a weapon against GECOM, regardless of procedure to follow, to favour the eligibility of the PPP/C’s preferred candidate.

In all this environment that threatens to undermine the functioning of this very key election state body, there is deafening silence from this particular print media, the Stabroek News, in whose pages space is now allowed to leaders who once abused this nation and its people. It is shameful on the part of this once reputable print house, to now allow the daily sanitisation of a leader who once almost throttled its existence, branding it an opposition newspaper, and media workers as “vultures.” This is concubinage of an interesting kind.

Regards
Earl Hamilton