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Earlier in the week, I presided over the elections of a football club. When the results were made final and announced, I was particularly struck by the intense level of skepticism over the results. Despite earnest efforts to ensure transparency and ensuring that the process could withstand scrutiny, the participants remained resolutely doubtful about the final count.
There is certainly enough evidence, past and present, to merit this concern
This development immediately triggered my penchant for inquiry. The natural pavlovian reaction was to point fingers directly at the last elections but we know it started a long time ago. Be that as it may, I felt the need to vent: what better place than this column?
ETERNALLY CONTEMPTUOUS
Where did it all start? When did we inadvertently commit to the philosophy of being eternally doubtful about elections and their results? To be fair, the Burnham era cannot escape a mention. It has to be difficult to sustain an argument that suggests these negative yearnings for election results did not originate in that period. But even as we take our usual glance at that period, we must be mindful that the post-Burnham era was replete with serious question marks over national elections. Despite the former leader being branded as the historical poster boy of rigged elections, a cursory glance at the facts would reveal that all are equally guilty and responsible for this eternal contempt.
2020 ELECTIONS
If there was ever a chance of national recovery from the affliction of elections skepticism, the March 2nd, 2020 elections ended all hopes. I was never a skeptic. To the extreme contrary, I was an avid advocate for voting. Now, I take no pleasure in telling you that I may never return to that place of electoral confidence. I refuse to join a long line in the wee hours of the morning to have my vote sacrificed on the altar of some malevolent returning officer or superseded by mystery ballots that have not met the basic legal requirements. It was a sham. Elections skepticism has rightly reached its apogee post-March 2nd, 2020.
BUILDING PUBLIC CONFIDENCE
We cannot continue like this. There has to be an earnest effort at all levels of society to restore some semblance of belief in the system. What is the worth of democracy if there is eternal doubt over whether election results reflect the will of the people? We might as well slip into autocracy and stop pretending. No President or government deserves to be harangued about their legitimacy. The best way to escape this harassment is by ensuring that the electoral process is transparent. This can only be achieved by serious reforms which will render political accusations of illegitimacy as hollow cries in the desert. A clean voters list will build public confidence. Campaign finance legislation will build public confidence. Automatic national recounts will build confidence. The introduction of extreme verification will build confidence. Above all, the courts remain the supreme repositories for truth and it is incumbent upon those institutions to entertain elections complaints and put finality to disputes. Now, I fully understand the game of having crafted a carefully constructed propagandized message which communicates a metaphysical battle between ‘the riggers’ in one corner and the saviors of democracy at the other end. However, beneath this veneer pseudo-morality, there lies serious ceding loss of confidence in things electoral among a large swathe of the Guyanese populace. If we do not pay due regard to this lack of confidence in the system, it will metamorphose into insurmountable voter apathy and all and sundry shall suffer. In the absence of serious reform, elections skepticism is here to stay. (The views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not necessarily that of this newspaper)
