March 2, 2021 has ignited reverberations, by the governing party, about the No Confidence Motion of 2018 and Elections 2020. Much of the focus has been on the condemnation of the PNC and the need to rid GECOM of Lowenfield, Myers and Mingo. Unfortunately, this has taken the form of a monologue with the PPP/C officials and others of their choosing doing all of the talking, much of which takes the form of Judge, Jury and Executioner. Societies normally have one legal compass for all, however there are multiple moral compasses that reflect the diversity of the society as is recognised and protected by constitutional provisions, such as article 40 (1) (b) of Constitution of Guyana which enshrines : “freedom of conscience, of expression and of assembly and association”. This enshrined provision, in this instance, is seemingly being observed in the breach as the PPP and the PPP alone are commanding the national airwaves to expound their position on matters which are still to be adjudicated on in the court and issues that can only be said to be premised on conjecture rather than irrefutable facts. Trumping all of that, from a moral and legal perspective, are the following:
- No matter what anyone may think of the Lowenfield, Myers and Mingo matters, those matters are before the courts and the accused should be the beneficiary of the established legal principal: innocent until proven guilty in a court of law (Ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat).However, the Attorney- General, the custodian of the law, on behalf of the State, is the one, not only pronouncing on the sub judice matters, but also prescribing penalties.
- In 2006, there was the misappropriation of a constituency seat in District 10 (Region 10). GECOM conceded that that had occurred but took no action to correct it, although it was detected and drawn to their attention, prior to the Declaration. The subsequent Petition, on that matter, was thrown out on technical grounds similar to those which saw one of the 2021 petitions being thrown out. The self-proclaimed moralists of 2006 squatted on that seat for five years.
- In 2011, it is public knowledge that a fraudulent result was presented to the Commission. Had that fraud been successful, the PPP/C would have been declared the winner of the 2011 elections by a one seat majority. What was the reaction, at that time, of the moralists? They claimed that the system worked. The fraudster was retained in the highest office of GECOM to oversee future elections. No disciplinary or court action was even contemplated. As fate would have had it, the non-renewal of contract, albeit opposed by the PPP/C, brought that charade to an end. The offender walked scotch free and GECOM was even accused of ethnic cleansing in the face of that non-renewal.
- Here we are in 2021, when the system, by their standards of 2011, apparently worked in 2020 and is still at work to determine if there was malfeasance, albeit with starts, stops and sputters, however, the moralists in clear acts of duplicity are using their moral compass to made determinations and propose penalties in defiance of due process and justice.
- Their duplicity is even more glaring in their attempts to address the supposed problems with the electoral systems by simply going after Lowenfield, Myers and Mingo, for whom Village Voice holds no brief, except to observe that the age old problems which affect the proper conduct of elections are once again being swept under the carpet and the proposed limited changes are being driven by one partisan stakeholder.
- In 2015, the Carter Centre, in its Report, made a number of recommendations, including how to “Build Confidence in the Voters List”, inter alia. This has since become a concern of almost every Observer Mission. The CARICOM Mission (2020) specifically recommended: 1.” As soon as the results of elections are finalised and declared, GECOM should commence or continue house to house registration so that the ‘bloated list’ can be cleansed”; and 2.”GECOM should seek the assistance of the Attorney-General Chambers or employ the services of a private legal drafting firm to review all elections and electoral laws to legislate bases for cleansing of the voter`s list.” These recommendations support GECOM`s pre-election attempt to complete house-to-house registration and the Parliament`s unanimous appropriation of monies to conduct the house-to-house registration in 2019, yet, all else is on the agenda except the cleansing of the list.
A commitment to inclusivity and an holistic approach to electoral reform is an essential way forward for “One Guyana”.
