Dear Editor,

WHY is the PPP-Civic so obsessed to hold elections now? Why are they opposed to a clean voters’ list? Is it because the current voters’ list is so bloated that they fear a fair list? Let’s examine why.

According to Commissioner Vincent Alexander, with Guyana’s population of 740,000 we have a voters’ list in the vicinity of 500,000. This means that about 67 per cent of Guyanese are eligible to vote. But Alexander may be too modest in his assessment since the reputable KnowledgeWalk Institute, a Barbados-based educational research institute with Caribbean Elections.com, has published the 2015 voter registration at 583,444 and the United Nations has estimated our population at 750,000. So, for the 2015 elections, Guyana had 78 per cent of its population eligible to vote – an alarming number and one for the Guinness Book of Records.
In our sister-Caribbean states and the developing world, the voters’ list is about 51 per cent of the general population.

The data shows many trends. Since the elections of 1992 the number of registered voters on record is as follows: 1992 – 384,195; 2006 – 442,369; 2011 – 475,496; and 2015 – 583,444. Voter registration increased by 23 per cent in 2015. Were they driven to register everyone or to reproduce voters, given the demise of the Jagdeo-Ramotar’s government in 2014, going into the May 2015 elections? There is no other country in the world, where such unbelievable statistics would be accepted and the bloated list used for future elections. So, with our population holding constant at 750,000 and none of the 10 regions experiencing population decline, how can we plausibly explain this sudden and steep rise in the electorate from 2011 to 2015?

There is none, other than blatantly inflating the voters’ list. The numbers just do not correlate with the previous elections cycles, or with the stable population number. The only rational conclusion is that the massive increase in voter registration was to facilitate multiple voting.

The PPP leadership knows that elections by March 2019 will disenfranchise many of our young voters, about to be 18 years of age. They also know that since the 2015 elections, many youths have not registered to vote. If this PPP leadership truly believes in democracy and youth empowerment, they will support the removal of every road block, to ensure that Guyana’s youth, who represent 20 per cent of our population (Guyana Bureau of Statistics 2012 Census), are not denied their civic right to choose their leaders and government. If denied, the PPP leaders should take heed that our youths have the right to file class action suits in our courts. Nothing justifies disenfranchisement, even though arguments that opportunity to register exist.

The PPP leadership is obsessed with going to the polls immediately, as they did with the Confidence Vote. It reminds us of the saying, “when bline man seh he gon pelt ya, ee already gat brick in e han”. The brick is the PPP’s bloated list. GECOM is justified in advising the President and the nation that the commission is not ready for a fair and free election.
Act 1 Scene 2 of the Charrandass plot: No Jagdeo, No!

Mr. Editor, my fellow Guyanese should be able to see why we need a new voters’ list based on house-to-house registration. We also need to replace those voter ID cards with new electronic fool-proof ones. It will help us to have a sound database, eliminate duplicates of voters, and weed out names of repeats and the dead.
For Act 1 Scene 3, let us all sound our voices and cast votes of No Confidence in the PPP. Shout it out – NO JAGDEO, NO!

Regards,
Max Wallerson