WPA proposes joint opposition parties’ alliance to ensure credible elections

By Alexis Rodney-The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) is proposing the establishment of a joint opposition parties’ mechanism, which will bring political parties together to fight against the potential rigging of the upcoming 2025 General and Regional Elections. Executive member, Dr David Hinds revealed Wednesday that his party has already met with one of the newly elected leaders of the two major opposition parties and hopes to meet with the other soon.

The joint opposition parties will bring together the WPA, AFC, PNC, and other parties within the APNU as a group to advocate, protest and lobby for a clean electoral machinery. Efforts by APNU/AFC to ensure credible elections were made before the March 2, 2020 poll. The party had protested the bloated Official List of Electors (OLE) and had moved to the court to have the issue remedied. However, the court ruled that the more than 200,000 extra names could not be struck from the list since Guyana’s Constitution has made no provision for such.

Dr Hinds said the joint unit will be pushing to have those laws repealed:

“The PNC has indicated, the AFC and WPA have indicated that they are willing to agree to legislation that will ensure that that list is clean. That is one of ways to do it and the best way to do it is to have new house to house registration. That is the surest way to ensure there is a new and credible list,” Dr Hinds stated during his appearance on the Kams TV live morning programme.

Dr Hinds said the PPP would definitely fight against a clean voters’ list since the bloated list is being used to its advantage. The party has already been accused of widespread electoral fraud at the 2020 elections, which allowed it to attain a one seat majority in parliament.

“The manipulation is not just manipulating the voters list but manipulating the use of money to buy votes. That is part of rigging. Things like campaign spending have to be taken into consideration.”

According to Dr Hinds joint opposition units are not strange to Guyana and have always been used to realise needed reform. He recalled the formation of the Patriotic Coalition for Democracy in 1986, an alliance of all the opposition parties and trade unions which he said waged a bitter campaign for election reform against the Desmond Hoyte Administration, leading up to the 1992 elections. Campaigns during that period saw demonstrations in Guyana and the Caribbean as well as the intervention of CARICOM and former US President Jimmy Carter.

Like the 1992 elections, Dr Hinds believes that external forces may have to mediate between the opposition and the PPP to ensure a credible electoral machinery since the PPP remains adamant.

“I think it will take external intervention to broker an agreement between the PPP and the opposition… external intervention does not come with people just parachuting in… It was the combination of protest and resistance internally, lobbying hard at CARICOM and then lobbying the Carter Centre and other American organisations that brought about the agreement in 1992 for a new electoral machinery,” he relayed.

A similar body, named the Joint Opposition Parties (JOP) was formed in 2006 between the PNC, AFC and WPA, which later led to the establishment of the APNU between the WPA and PNC. Dr Hinds said the WPA is prepared to play its role in the joint opposition parties, lobbying for a clean electoral machinery. He said the PNC as the major party in the opposition, has to shoulder its responsibility to rid the elections of manipulation.

Dr Hinds has already called for the use of biometrics and a clean voters list to ensure credible elections. He said biometrics will ensure that persons who turn up to vote are who they claim to be.

“So, we are at an impasse with biometrics, we are at an impasse on the voters list,” he said Wednesday.

According to the political activist, Guyanese must also demand independence and impartiality from the officials at the helm of GECOM.

“It is clear from everything that the machinery at GECOM is controlled by the staff and for the most part, the PPP. This is because the chairman of GECOM has voted generally with the PPP, and it is the commission that hires the staff.

The fact that the chairman has voted with them has facilitated a staff that is partial to the PPP. That does not auger well for free and fair election.

 A partial staff, clean voters list and biometrics would remove opportunities for pilfering, and manipulating the results of the elections,” Dr Hinds said.