Former Prime Minister and Mayor, Mr. Hamilton Green, is calling for house to house registration to begin earliest. The current Preliminary List of Electors (PLE) has approximately 680,000 voters when the entire population is approximately 750,000. Green, responding to comments by Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, SC, the bloated list cannot be rectified given a 2019 High Court’s ruling, is urging avoidance in making the law an ass. Nandlall’s letter was carried in some newspapers on Tuesday.
His viewpoint follows: –
I read with deep interest the erudite and scholarly letter written by Attorney General Anil Nandlall, in which he dealt extensively with the Voter’s List.
He also referred to a decision made by Hon. Justice Roxanne George, which in fact aborted House-to-House registration.
The law and the niceties of it continue to be used conveniently by our friends.
On the position taken with regard to extant Voter’s List, the PNC and many sane citizens contend that the list is a bloated one and therefore seriously flawed.
The Hon. AG and his Party the PPP, made a similar criticism of the list earlier.
However, I believe that ordinary folks have a much greater faith in logic and reality as against the complexities of laws.
Guyana’s population hovers between 750,000 and 800,000. Going around Guyana and Georgetown every day we encounter large numbers of children at school and therefore not of voting age.
It is therefore highly improbable that a Voter’s List of 682,000 adults is real and acceptable. I rest my case and support the Leader of the Opposition’s demand for House to House Registration. It is sometimes unwise to criticize man-made laws and the judgments that flow from them.
Here I recount the words of Charles Dickens, the English Novelist writer and critic and regarded as a literary genius. In his fascinating work ‘Oliver Twist,’ the character Mr. Bumble bellowed ‘The law is an Ass.’
Beyond that, I would ask patriots to have an in depth examination of the many aliens who are being baptised Guyanese and may very well be part of a bloated Voter’s List.
For me only the Descendants of our Indigenous People, Descendants of Indentured labourers and Descendants of Slaves, with of course a few exceptions should have the right to determine the composition of our Parliament.
Here logic points to reality and the validity after a thorough examination of the facts. For simple folks like myself, this translates to a quest for the truth, the whole truth and nothing more than the truth.
As an ordinary citizen and layman, here I rest my case.
Let’s begin House to House registration earliest.
