–extend timeframe for elections

HOURS before President David Granger proclaimed a date for General and Regional Elections, the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) challenged the Parliamentary Opposition, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), to return to the National Assembly and extend the timeframe for the conduct of elections.
With the three-month Constitutional deadline for the elections long expired (March 21, 2019), GPSU President Patrick Yarde said the Opposition should return to the House, and together with the Government extend the elections timeframe in keeping with Article 106 (6) and (7) of the Constitution.

“I challenge the Opposition Leader to respect the Constitution by returning to Parliament to extend the life for elections, and thereafter tone down the rhetoric and stop peddling misinformation that would result in breaches of the law,” Yarde said as he addressed the 23rd Biennial Delegates’ Conference at the Baridi Benab on the grounds of State House.
The trade unionist proposes that the extension be aligned with the February 2020 timeframe given by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) for the conduct of elections. He said it is the GPSU’s expectation that President Granger will also proclaim a date for General and Regional Elections in keeping with the advice GECOM has given.
Yarde told delegates and officials present at the function that the GPSU, like the government, is concerned about the credibility of the Voters List, and is comforted by the fact that the Elections Secretariat is taking steps to ensure that the Official List of Electors, when produced, would be one of high credibility.

“We are of the very firm position that the voters’ list must be credible in accordance with the Constitution,” Yarde said, adding: “This masquerade show that has been taking place, we don’t support it. The voters’ list must be credible; the people who are voting must be eligible to vote.”

He said it is for that very reason that the GPSU has applied to GECOM to be a domestic observer for the much-anticipated elections. Earlier this week, veteran trade unionist Lincoln Lewis made a similar call for the Opposition to return to the National Assembly, and extend the period for which elections must be held. “The President David Granger situation is different to that of Donald Ramotar,” Lewis said. “Ramotar, in seeking to avert a no-confidence vote, avoided the House sitting, then moved to prorogation and announced a date for election. In Granger’s case, a vote was allowed and passed, followed by litigation that saw the initial timeframe, i.e. three months, when an election could be held ran out. So, in order for President Granger to prorogue the House and announce a date for election, according to the law, i.e. Article 106(7), the House has to sit and grant him the authority to extend the time for election beyond the “three months.”
He said the Opposition Members of Parliament, by refusing to return to the National Assembly, are not only engaging in “an act of lawlessness”, but are holding the nation and its system of governance to ransom.

NEVER BEFORE

“Never before has this nation witnessed where the need arises for parliamentary support of the Opposition to give effect to any act, that side of the House has abrogated its responsibility by withholding its vote,” Lewis said, adding: “For six months and counting, the nation continues to be held hostage to this conduct by the very people who are shouting they want the Constitution to be upheld. If they really care about Guyana, knowing that they hold the other part of the equation in their hands, they would return to the National Assembly and do the job they are being paid for.”

At the delegates’ conference, Education Officer, Sister Vera Naughton, who spoke on behalf of the GTUC, reminded her audience that it is the citizenry who will make a determination on who will lead the country, and that they are critically assessing the situation.
“The challenges of these times, as our political leaders fight over power and control of an oil-and-gas economy, are many and even scary, for we have a fair enough understanding of what each force represents, good, bad and indifferent, for the working class,” Naughton said, but made it known that the working class has done its homework.
“We have a good enough comparison of corruption, mismanagement, nepotism, cruelty, disregard for laws and judicial practices, demonisation, marginalisation and destruction of citizens,” she said by way of explaining what she meant by ‘done its homework’.
Calling on the working class to rise above the fray, above the past and current hurts, pains and rejection, and advocate for national unity regardless, Naughton said: “A nation divided cannot succeed. We must call for all politicians to give meaning to Article 13 of the Guyana Constitution.”

The delegates’ conference is the highest decision-making body for the GPSU. This year, it is being held under the theme, ‘Championing a living wage, respect for collective bargaining; striving for genuine working class and national unity’.