The elections are over. Some are over the moon while others are wallowing in shock and pity. But in their wake are a number of issues that will either force legislative changes or result in actions that would not normally occur in any democracy. If there is the resort to legislative changes then it must be remembered that laws cannot be enforced retroactively. Whatever exists will remain, unless there is a new chapter forced by one factor or the other.
Members of the Guyana Elections Commission serve indefinitely. It is akin to being appointed for life. According to the formula proposed by the late President Jimmy Carter for the elections held in 1992, the government would appoint three members and the opposition would appoint three. This composition should have been changed after the 1992 elections according to President Carter but Guyana is a strange country. The result is that there is a situation that continues for more than thirty years.
In Guyana the parliamentary opposition has changed. The Leader of the Opposition would come from a new political party that did not even present a manifesto. We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) headed by Azruddin Mohamed has shattered the long held view that the race vote is entrenched. But be that as it may he is saddled with an elections commission over which he has no say. None of the members of the commission is one of his appointees.
This situation attracted the attention of Anil Nandlall who was bold enough to approach Commissioner Vincent Alexander. The conversation ended with Alexander telling him that in a real democracy, he, Alexander, would have resigned from the commission. Alexander is going nowhere. I cannot speak for the other two commissioners appointed by the opposition but it is likely that they would follow Alexander’s lead.
Only in Guyana is there a problem with the elections commission. This body is now being seen as an arm of the ruling People’s Progressive Party. It is contended that the chairperson votes with the government appointed commissioners on almost every occasion.
In Jamaica, there is no problem with the elections commission. That is a seven-member body with the government and the opposition each appointing two members. The remaining three come from civil society. Since elections in that country are not rooted in party politics—the people do not vote for a ruling party but for constituency representatives—it is unlikely that there would be diehard party representatives on the commission.
A similar situation exists in the other territories. Guyanese would be hard pressed to find a case of the elections commission being so involved in elections in another CARICOM state. Those elections commissions would not be pushed to the point of facilitating strange inclusions to their voters’ lists.
In the wake of the elections it became known that Nigerians, Bangladeshis, Indian nationals and other South Asians were induced to vote for the ruling party. The shenanigans with the voters’ list were exposed when it transpired that in one case more than one hundred people were registered as living at the same address. And this address was not a hotel or an apartment complex.
There were other registrations. In one case more than two dozen Bangladeshis with the same last name were registered at one address and they all voted at Diamond. To compound the issue, they were transported by buses hired or rented by the government.
From the point of view of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) having lost two bastions of political support, there is need for some serious introspection. It would take a lot to explain how it was that some seventy per cent of its supporters stayed away from the polls.
The migration of young people from the People’s National Congress (PNC) must also be explained. One view is that the failure of APNU to ensure a coalition with Alliance For Change was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It mattered not that the AFC appeared to be a spent force, people wanted that coalition.
The party was also affected by the defection of many prominent members and by the vicious attacks directed at its leader, Aubrey Norton. Norton attained the party leadership with a lot of fanfare but his opponents had loud voices and numerous social media platforms.
The critics have won and Norton is left to pick up the pieces. Some say that he should step down. Some of his defectors have joined WIN. A former APNU Member of Parliament, Tabitha Sarrabo-Halley was the WIN Prime Ministerial candidate. Another defector, Amanza Walton Desir, started her own political movement and is heading back to Parliament as the leader of her own party.
Meanwhile, away from APNU, the attacks against Azruddin Mohamed have not ceased. Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo during a recent press conference accused Azruddin of wearing the presidential crest. Jagdeo contended that the young Mohamed had not even been elected and there he was wearing the crest of the president. That brought a laugh from Azruddin Mohamed himself. He took to social media wearing the jersey and what appeared to be a crest. He then accused Jagdeo of being obsessed with him. What appeared to be the presidential crest was in fact a trademark of a Versace jersey.
But Jagdeo is not finished. He says that he would be going to the parliament more often because Azruddin Mohamed is going to be there.
And for all the talk about the effect of the sanctions, the United States government through the embassy in Georgetown has said that the US government would find a way to work around the sanctions against the Mohameds.
