Breaking News: Guyanese home and abroad: Granger the new LFS Burnham

Breaking News: Guyanese home and abroad, listen up.

Opposition Leader Bharat Jagdeo is calling on his support base to shut the country down. The Opposition leader at a just concluded press Conference at his Church Street Office is calling President David Granger a lier becuse the president did not choose a name from the list he submitted for GECOM chairman.

Mr. Granger has chosen Retired Judge James Patterson as his choice for GECOM Chairman. He was moments ago sworn in.

Jagdeo said he will call on the NDCs and RDCs his party won, to go on a slow pase against the Government and if Preaident Granger want to take the country back to the 60s then so be it.

When asked if he and his party will go to parliament when it reopens next month Jagdeo said we will see about that. He also stated that he will not support anything the government does in this country going forward.

Serious times are upon us folks and i am seeing danger ahead in the coming days.

Here is a quote from a PPP Press Release moments ago.

"By his position the President has clearly and formally signalled his government’s intention to derail and undermine the democratic process and to jeopardise free and fair elections in Guyana. The President has demonstrated bad-faith; he has acted unlawfully; and he has now thrown this nation into chaos. He will be held responsible for all repercussions, which will now follow.

As a consequence, we will assume a mode of non-cooperation at every possible level; we will launch country-wide meetings and we will activate every international process available.

We will say more on this matter at a later stage."

I am calling on all civic minded Guyanese to denounce Jageos disastrous and race hate massages on this peaceful land of ours.

Khemraj Ramjattan, Chairman of the Alliance For Change (AFC), a major partner in the Coalition government, has declared agreement with President David Granger’s unilateral appointment of the new chairman of the country’s elections body.

“I, Khemraj Ramjattan, support what the President did,” the AFC chairman told the News Room when contacted on Friday.

President David Granger Thursday evening appointed retired Justice James Patterson as the chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) .

He said that while the President did ask the party for its views, ultimately it was the President’s decision.

“The constitution says it is the President’s judgement call on the matter…it was his call,” Ramjattan stated.

He said that the leadership of the AFC will meet later this evening and issue a statement.

The AFC, which then had seven seats in the National Assembly, joined with the PNCR and other small parties of the APNU bloc to contest the 2015 general elections. That coalition won and rules the country with a one-seat Parliamentary majority.

The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) is still to pronounce on President David Granger’s unilateral selection of the new Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) Chairman but party executive David Hinds says that the decision would only further divide an already “political trust-fragile” country.

Hinds plans to make his position known when the party meets to discuss the matter, which its executive says will be very soon.

“I think the President’s decision to unilaterally appoint the Gecom chair reflects how poisoned our political environment is. The decision by the President represents another colossal failure on the part of our political leaderships. If the President and the Opposition Leader could not find consensus on this matter, then I am afraid that our political future as a joint nation is bleak. We should wake up to the reality that our leaders on both sides do not have what it takes to manage our difficult, multi-ethnic society. That, to me, is the sad reality,” Hinds told Stabroek News yesterday.

“The President should have ….

Dear Editor,

According to the tinkered and flawed 1980 constitution, the President can unilaterally select someone to be chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission under the following circumstances: (i) The Leader of the Opposition fails to submit a list or (ii) the list submitted by the Leader of the Opposition is unacceptable to the President. The constitution is also clear that the Opposition Leader can select former judges or “fit and proper” persons to make up his list.

However, if the Opposition Leader fails to submit a list, then the President can unilaterally select a judge as chairperson, which in my opinion is still a curious framing of words. (As an aside: no wonder that youths are not choosing the technical fields in vast numbers. Why should they? Their constitution disrespects problem-solving, mathematical and technical subjects.) Mr Jagdeo submitted three lists and all were deemed unacceptable by President Granger; hence, the President one-sidedly selected his candidate. Indeed, I felt the Opposition Leader’s first list was clear in its Machiavellian political calculations.

It represents vintage Jagdeo. Given the divisive nature of ethnic politics in Guyana, I think the first list curtailed the choice set of the President, although that list had two wonderful candidates who in my opinion were the clear winners after three lists of candidates.

After the first list, Mr Jagdeo seemed to have subdued somewhat his political calculus and finally uplifted the national interest above his personal ambition.

It was clear from the beginning that President Granger wanted his candidate and his candidate alone.

Therefore, the three lists that include over 15 outstanding Guyanese are not considered “fit and proper.” (As an aside: I hate the term “fit and proper.” Who gets to decide when someone is fit and proper? This is a load of nonsense this constitution has foisted on a people.)

There were clearly about five worthy candidates in the three who could have been chairperson. So, while Mr Jagdeo seemed to have restrained his personal ambition that on several occasions could have ruptured social cohesion, President Granger has heightened his ambition and that of his party, the PNC. He does not seem to care anymore to entertain even idle thoughts about social cohesion and unity. Perhaps unrealized crude oil has clouded the vision of the President and his party.

A dark, thick, gluey shadow has now been placed over the Guyana Elections Commission and the possible 2020 general election. With a history of rigged elections, the PNC has fulfilled the expectation and stereotype of the opposition and its supporters.

As an independent, I have to concede that dark shadow is also affecting my view of Gecom and the likelihood of a free and fair election.

Gecom’s troubles are also compounded by several recent financial indecencies.

This can greatly undermine the ability of its members to act impartially in a most divisive country. This is because the financial irregularities would present substantial leverage to those who are up to old tricks. Guyanese democracy, despite the stress placed on it by that deeply flawed 1980 Constitution and the actions of the political class since 1992, has retrogressed today. Gecom and democracy are in crisis!

Yours faithfully,

Tarron Khemraj

The Peoples’ Progressive Party went to extraordinary lengths over ten months to find eighteen Guyanese willing to agree to have their names submitted to the President of Guyana for consideration to be appointed to one of the most difficult, controversial and thankless of jobs – Chair of the Elections Commission. Of the last six names submitted, two immediately leap out for consideration. Retired Major General Joe Singh was the highly respected Chief of Staff of the Guyana Defence Force and was a former Chair of the Elections Commission for the 2002 elections, which were credibly held. Attorney at Law Teni Housty is a well-respected, well-qualified, senior, experienced, lawyer and former President of the Guyana Bar Association. Many of the other nominees are also well qualified but no one can seriously assert that the political persuasion of either of these gentlemen, if any, would influence their decisions. Many observers expected, or at least hoped, that President Granger would find suitable persons from the last six.

The PPP has announced that it will mount a constitutional challenge to the President’s appointment. The best time for this was after the President had rejected the first six names and in doing so had suggested that the names should be of only judges, former judges or persons qualified to be judges. The results of the case which was filed after the Leader of the Opposition had submitted a second set of names, showed that it could have been possible to obtain an order from the court directing the President to choose a name from that first six. The Leader of the Opposition having submitted two further sets of six names, each at the invitation of the President, for understandable reasons, has deprived him of the opportunity of having an order in relation to the first six names.

The Constitution provides that “if the Leader of the Opposition fails to submit a list as provided for,” only then can the President proceed unilaterally to make an appointment of a judge, former judge or person qualified to be a judge. My understanding is that the Leader of the Opposition has submitted a list. The list was amended twice by the substitution of names. If so, the Leader of the Opposition has not failed to submit a list and the President’s appointment is therefore void. But I’m jumping the gun. The talented lawyers associated with the Opposition will no doubt examine the matter in more detail.

The PPP has declared non-cooperation with the Government. It is not the first time in the PPP’s history that non-cooperation was declared. After the 1973 elections, at which the PNC seized a two-third majority, the PPP declared non-cooperation and did not take up its seats in the National Assembly for 18 months. The PNC did the same after 1992 and did not take up their seats in the National Assembly for long periods of time in the years thereafter. In both cases the respective governments carried on their business with little disruption, but great bitterness. Based on past history with both the PPP and PNC, the PPP’s non-cooperation will mean very little in practical terms to the government’s agenda.

The victim of rigged elections in Guyana since 1968 has been the people of Guyana, but more specifically, the PPP and its supporters. It took 24 years of hard and painful struggle and suffering for democracy to be restored during which time Guyana’s economic and social and development were severely damaged and from which, according to the recent IDB report, we are still recovering. The deep fears of the PPP arising from the initial impasse over the selection of the Chair and now the eventual breakdown of the process, must be instilling deep fear and anguish over the future and the prospect of being rigged out of office for another twenty-five years.

Economic and social recovery after 1992, which commenced during the Hoyte regime beginning in 1985, has been painfully slow, notwithstanding the restoration of democratic rule. But the modest progress made so far, which has entrenched a tolerable level of engagement between the government and opposition, will be destroyed unless democracy remains the basis of governance in Guyana. Democracy and free and fair elections are the foundation of social and economic progress. They are the basis on which good governance will be built and corruption eliminated. They are the foundation for the continuing discourse on constitutional reform and the implementation of APNU+AFC’s manifesto’s promises on a new system of government which will terminate the “winner take all system.” They are vitally necessary to build consensus on how to manage and spend oil revenue when it begins to flow and in relation to which the Opposition should have major role. Guyana’s entire future depends on the strengthening of its democracy, not the creation of situations where a large section of the population begins to question whether Guyana is going to return to the past. Many people now view this as a frightening possibility.

The Government is under an obligation to demonstrate its fidelity to the democratic process in order to sustain the confidence of the Guyanese people. Unless it takes credible steps to do so, the fears are not going to subside.

This entry was posted in Analysis, APNU/AFC, Elections, Government, Opinion, PNC, Politics, PPP and tagged AFC, APNU, crisis, elections, elections commission, elections results, GECOM, governance, government, guyana, guyanese, guyanese politics, history, PNC, politics, PPP, reform by Ralph Ramkarran