…Kwayana warns against rushed elections
…reminds parties of the aftermath of the 2001 polls

Former Working Peoples Alliance (WPA) executive, Eusi Kwayana, has urged the two main parties to sit down and work out a realistic schedule for elections even as he frowned on the opposition’s demand for the country to go to polls within two to three months.
President David Granger is already on record stating that he will be guided by the advice from the Guyana Elections Commission and also warned about going into elections with a corrupted voters’ list and an ill-prepared GECOM.

Writing in a letter which appeared in the Stabroek News on Saturday, Kwayana reasoned that the first indications from the government and the opposition in Guyana, after the CCJ’s ruling, suggest that they need to have a serious conversation in the interest of the population. He noted the opposition’s call for elections within three months and government’s insistence that valid elections cannot be held before November. “This shows a gap of about two months in their respective expectations. One Justice on the CCJ panel had spoken of “a happy marriage between principle and practicality.” It is almost six months since the no-confidence motion was passed. Another two months after the three demanded by the opposition – if the delay will avoid the episodes after the 2001 General Elections – may not be fatal to the general good,” Kwayana advised.

BRAZENLY DISRESPECTFUL
Speaking directly to the reaction of the opposition, Kwayana said the Bharrat Jagdeo-led PPP is attempting to present itself as the champion of early elections and democracy, however he said that party has to admit, the historical fact that in 2015, when the present government in opposition tabled a no-confidence vote against it, the PPP government of the day brazenly disrespected a standard parliamentary convention and refused to have the motion debated. “Instead, without explanation, it suspended or prorogued the National Assembly, thus depriving its parliamentary partner of the use of a standard facility, that is, a debate on its no-confidence motion. As the country waited for the motion to be debated, the PPP used a convenient provision of the Constitution to dissolve Parliament and call a new election.”

Kwayana reminded that Members of Parliament take an oath to uphold the Constitution and this can only mean even when it favours the other side. “I have referred elsewhere to a time in 1961 when a PPP Government refused – for an entire term – to hold a by-election to fill a vacancy caused when the High Court unseated one of its members in an election petition. These are not arguments against the findings of the CCJ, but an attempt to bring before the public, matters that could not be relevant during the recent hearings. At this stage, these are political arguments touching on our political culture,” the Guyanese politician asserted.

Kwayana said too that, “strangely, the government’s recent description of the readiness of the Elections Commission, with alleged thousands of invalid names on the electoral lists, reminds us of the Hon. Mr. Rohee’s explanation of the failure of the PPP to hold the Houston by-election.” To this end, he said the best option at present will be an agreement between government and opposition on the timing of the due elections, so that the episodes following the 2001 General Elections are not replayed. “These incidents had taken the Guyanese population into a time of danger and insecurity worse than the 1960s,” Kwayana warned.

Last week, in a televised address to the nation following the CCJ’s ruling, President Granger had assured Guyanese that his government respects the legal process and the decision of Caribbean Court of Justice as well as the Constitution of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana. He said it is now clear that the Guyanese people need certainty about the future and a way forward. “I want to outline a clear path. It is essential that we hold fair, free and credible elections. We cannot proceed on the current list of voters. It is outdated and corrupted. It may hold as many as 200,000 incorrect entries. What’s more, those who have reached the age of 18 years since the last election are not on it.”

According to the President, the Constitution entitles all citizens over the age of 18 the right to vote. “It is a democratic imperative that house-to-house registration be completed swiftly so we can have an election at the earliest opportunity. The Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission, Justice Patterson, has previously informed me that the Commission will be ready to hold elections in November 2019. This will be after the completion of house-to-house registration. I now await a recommendation for a specific date from GECOM and I will then issue a proclamation.”

He noted that the country will be heading to the polls and there is going to be a crucial choice for our citizens. “A choice to decide the future of our country and, most importantly, the future with regard to jobs, living standards, and education for our children,” President Granger said.