GUYANA operates with a List System. This means that political parties contesting the General and Regional Elections are required by law to present their list of candidates to the electoral body (GECOM) which has the constitutional responsibility to manage and oversee the conduct of those elections in accordance with Article 162 of the Constitution, which states: ‘ Elections shall be independently supervised by the Elections Commission.’
This is to facilitate the nomination of candidates for the General and Regional elections. At the conclusion of those elections, the party’s Leader of the List (different from Leader of the Party) then extracts the names, dependent upon the number of seats won in the elections, and presents them to GECOM. In so doing, those persons will subsequently be sworn in as Parliamentarians, representing their respective parties, and by extension, the Legislative branch of the government.

In other words, they are now law makers for the next five years, unless Parliament is ‘dissolved’ or ‘prorogued’ by the President. With regards to the List System, I wish to remind folks that no one on the list is directly elected into office as an individual, except through his/her party.

And, having been selected by the Leader of the List, that individual is expected to carry out the mandate, objectives and agendas of that party at all times, regardless of personal political views, greed, or some other form of nefarious political agenda. So, it would be disingenuous for anyone to believe that he/she was elected directly by the people. Thus invalidating the barefaced rubbish talk; ‘the people elected me to parliament.’ This brings me to the now infamous case of Charrandass Persaud, who charmed his way into the bosom of the Alliance For Change (AFC) with obviously one agenda. Hence, it would appear that he was obviously on an unholy political and desperate mission to seek personal gratification, without regards for the party and its supporters who afforded him the opportunity to be sitting in such a prestigious position. Mind you, a position that he could have never attained on his own accord in his lifetime.

In Hindi, there’s a word for being ungrateful, and that is ‘Adhan’yavadi’. Or, the more popular term ‘Namakaharama’. And like Judas, who knew beforehand that his main objective, if his way prevailed, would be to betray Christ, Charrandass (called Charran by his buddies from UG days, or Rat by his fellow villagers in Canje) was never interested in service to the people of Region Six or country, as he and his few friends and especially those who are out to score personal political points, would like us to believe. Thus, it would appear that he was lying patiently in wait, for the opportune time before he inflicted his final kiss of betrayal to the APNU/AFC government, and the people of Guyana, while pretending all along to be in full support of their policies. Charrandass continues to peddle the false notion that he has done Guyana a good deed by shouting out, on December 21, ‘Yes, Yes, Yes’ where he joined with the PPP to bring the democratically-elected coalition government down, through a highly questionable no confidence motion. In essence, he has attempted to suffocate an entire nation for selfish reasons, and for that he should be remembered as a traitor to the people of Guyana. In conclusion, anyone who would have seen the dramatic and obviously staged event on that evening, with two well-known cantankerous opposition operatives sitting in close proximity, would most certainly agree with the perception that the ‘Yes, Yes, Yes’ vote in favour of the PPP, was a done deal, possibly finalised over some bush rum and cassareep stew on Robb Street. So, the truth is, Charrandas Persaud is no hero, and history will not be too kind to him. Look out for my next article, as I address many reasons why Anil Nandlall does not have the moral authority to pronounce on political matters.