August 2nd this year will mark the first full year that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic Government is in office.
The government has done some remarkable things. We never thought that the materialisation could be so fast. They have scaled back the excessive tax policies of their predecessors while making sure Guyana was on the right economic growth trajectory. In addition, the PPP has come up with changes in the policy direction that moved from ministries to public entities and public business to the private sector based on the line of action Guyana needs to move forward in the future.
We are not short on examples to show things are moving progressively forward in every sector of Guyana’s development.

But there is one which is taking an inordinately long time to change. That is not the government’s fault but has to do with the slothfulness of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) in changing the guards of democracy to ensure the levels of transparency and accountability, declarations, and voter confidence that we expect. Also, the Commission is failing the people if they can’t change the guards and laws that govern the process to ensure we are never in the sad place we found ourselves in back in 2020.
The battle is on to remove the Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, and other officials who allegedly tried to rig the electoral process to give the A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance For Change opposition could get a second chance at power. They did not allegedly care about protecting the will of the people contained in the votes cast.

The world believed that the CEO and a compliant team of GECOM officials were stalling the process and holding the results of the elections at ransom.
GECOM’s PPP Commissioners have finally decided to let them go by dismissing them or terminating their contracts. And the expected battle in the courts seems to have restarted again, with the CEO seeking to bar two PPP Commissioners from voting on the motions brought against him.
Within the coming days, he is seeking injunctive measures to hold GECOM’S hands from letting him go until the Courts have decided substantively the matters brought firstly by Lowenfield, and secondly give him more time to ponder his next move.

If the Commission continues to permit the CEO and other people to fool them into cowardly following the precedent that it set of waiting to see what the courts will decide, the braver and more dangerous the business of dishonesty will become. There is no excuse for waiting any longer. After all, we have waited an entire year patiently to get to the point of letting Keith Lowenfield, Roxanne Myers, and Mortimer Mingo go so that GECOM could start its reformation process. It has so many things to do after they let the trio go.
The electoral reforms and the Local Government Reforms are waiting on the outcome of this process. The PPP and government have committed this country to deliver all of this and more. We expect this issue to be decided and acted upon in the interest of Guyana.
Lastly, the Chairman of the Commission, Justice Claudette Singh, must know what the public expects of her in terms of time and doing the right thing according to the law.
The ball is in her court now.