Jan 14, 2020 Editorial by Kaieteur News
It is January and we have not progressed, relative to flawed lists and ballooned numbers. They speak for themselves and speak in the sharpest terms as this electoral process unfolds, and set the stage for further acrimony and endless quarrels.
It is not a good place for this society to be, as it is a manifest for crisis, with all the toxic ingredients present. There is a huge differential, as relayed by some numbers that stare in the face and bang in the head. There are just over 83,000 non-eligible voters, according to the Revised List of Electors coming from GECOM. Those are citizens under 18 years of age.
Nobody has to be privy to what state agencies have on their books, but clearly and incontestably there are way more than 83,000-plus citizens under age 18. Commonsense, the wisdom of the street, and honest brokers (not political) and agents will be pushed to justify what is patently flawed and wrong.
An anonymous source articulated to the media that the number of citizens under 18 is around 280,000.
The difference between the official and unofficial is close to 200,000 names that should not be there as eligible and, in cleaner and clearer circumstances, would not be allowed to exercise their franchise.
For the sake of argument, let’s say it is not a difference of 200,000 persons, but somewhere in the vicinity of 100,000, that still is a material and consequential gap, a gap that holds extreme potential to lead this society down an antagonistic path.
Even accepting and pondering the smaller (100,000) number right away brings to a place of severe contentiousness. For it is a major number, and therein lies grounds for problems and controversies galore going into the future, past March 2nd.
From the vantage point of this early in the year and process, it ought to be inarguable that the groundwork for political obstinacy, at the leadership and group levels, and social ambience of the severest, most testing, nature looms rather menacingly and alarmingly.
Yet there are no indications of movement on any front. Officially, the chair of GECOM has gone on record, as saying thoughtfully and sensibly that “we can’t just remove people’s names because we could not locate them. We don’t have that right to disenfranchise these persons by removing their names from the voters’ list.”
Now, if the overseeing national electoral body is so stymied today – and rightly so, in keeping with judicial pronouncements – then this question can pointedly be asked from now: what will it be in a position to ascertain, finalize, and make public come post March 2nd?
From the perspective of this paper, since the hands of GECOM are short, since the list is terribly troubling, if not outright flawed, then whatever GECOM announces stands a high probability of having no credence, no standing, no traction, and no acceptance.
Let this horror story be dealt with from this young stage of what is obviously a savvy political game, even a scurrilous one, too. It leaves all of us hanging and most likely in a serious state of disarray come the month of March.
It is past the point where whatever had to be given is now outside the pale of consideration. It forms the precursor to where matters promise to be post-March 2nd. To be unflinchingly blunt, and with an eye to local pre-and post-electoral history, it would appear that this nation could find itself back at square one, when the final count -whatever numbers are involved – is flushed out, finalized, and laid before leaders, parties, and peoples.
The final count and the final result would not be found satisfying nor uplifting to somebody on some side of the divide. Commonsense and political environmental sense tells us that that would be losing side, and that will not be taken passively or sitting down.
We certainly were eyewitnesses to the heaving passions and incendiary developments during much of 2019. If that was the temperature then, then what else could be envisioned now, other than more, and to a much more overheated degree, of the same that went before?
Amidst this backdrop about lists and numbers, we go forward. The question is to what.
Comments
I agree with the commentary’s notion that elections with incomplete or disputed voter lists are a potential future minefield. On this basis, any party losing the upcoming elections will have lots of ammunition to question the legitimacy of the entire election process. I however recall that GECOM’s attempts at completing the updating of the voter lists by a house to house registration process was cut short due to massive pressure from the current opposition, aka the PPP and Mr. Jagdeo, who wanted elections as soon as possible. The responsible thing to do would have been that all parties agree to get the voter lists updated and verified before any election date is been set. Why wasn’t this possible? The commentary falls short in analyzing what went wrong and who was responsible for the current mess. Furthermore, it would have been nice to see the Guyanese civil society, if it exists, demanding that the voter lists are completed and updated. There should be the possibility of fixing things before disaster unfolds.
GECOM could have the most perfectly clean voters list and if the PPP loses the election, they will say it was rigged. Unfortunate but true. The only thing that will appease the opposition is for them to be declared the winner of the election.
Your may be right. But there would have to be credible evidence to make and prove any such allegations. You’re certainly old enough to remember one Forbes Burnham.
Ramesh.
Jagdeo and his clique wrote a poem:
“One Haitian land at CJIA,
To vote for APNU or AFC,
He asked, “Ou Brasil, sil vous plait?”
Jagdeo yell: Granga rig elections! Granga rig elections!
Haiti man went to Bonn Finn,
and Jagdeo ask him,
Granga rig election? Granga rig elections?
Haiti man ask “Who is him?”
Jagdeo slammed: GRANGA RIG ELECKSHUN GRANGA RIG ELECKSUN!
Haiti man saw a massive mansion at Pradoville,
Jagdeo pointed a finger at him,
Jagdeo yelled: GRANGA RIG ELECKSHUN! GO AWAY FRO HERE!
Haiti man ask Jagdeo what is wrong with him.
Jagdeo yelled: GRANGA RIG ELECKSHUN! GRANGA RIG ELECKSUN!
Haiti man wonder if Jagdeo is a mad man.
Who is this GRANGA Jagdeo is obsessed about?
Haiti man finally found his home in French Guiana,
But Jagdeo kept on yelling,
GRANGA RIG ELECKSUN, GRANGA RIG ELECKSHUN!
But the entire world heard, and wonder if Jagdeo had loose screws,
but Jagdeo kept on yelling GRANGA RIG ELECKSHUN,
Until the 100,000 American and Canadian-Guyanese returned and voted for PPP,
And Jagdeo was quite merry.
Correction:
“Jagdeo and his clique wrote a poem:
“One Haitian land at CJIA,
Jagdeo accused him that he landed,
To vote for APNU or AFC,
He asked, “Ou Brasil, sil vous plait?”
Jagdeo yell: Granga rig elections! Granga rig elections!
Ramesh since when does Jagdeo need credible evidence to cause chaos in an election? Call a spade a spade please!!!!
Jagdeo personally went to America and Canada to bus around 100,000+ Diaspora Guyanese to vote for PPP, yet if ONE Haitian lands at CJIA, Jagdeo accuses the Haitian or voting for APNU or AFC!
Joke of the day:
Bharrat Jagdeo tried to sue me for libel, but at court he couldn’t stop complaining that Granger and Forbes Burnham were conspiring to rig the elections, and his 100,000 potential PPP voters in Canada and USA also agreed with him.
Question to Guyana Times:
If Jagdeo brought 100,000 overseas Guyanese to vote for PPP this election, and 1 Haitian man entered CJIA to live in Brazil, who is rigging the elections?
Guyana Times: If the PPP loses the election, the answer is Forbes Burnham.
Bharrat Jagdeo, your head has no hair because Forbes Burnham rigged the election from your head lol
Can we please keep to commentaries that factual and constructive? Polemic comments are not really helpful and foster bad feelings. Reconciliation across racial groups starts with civility and decency online.
Yes Brandlie62 I agree with you said but sometimes it’s really difficult to hold back the truth in order to appear fair and unbiased. There are Guyanese who feel strongly about the systematic destruction of their country by those who want nothing more than to grab power and dominate the country for themselves and their voters.
Jagdeo is bringing in Diaspora Guyanese to vote for PPP. This is a fact:
https://demerarawaves.com/2019/11/03/jagdeo-calls-on-overseas-based-guyanese-to-return-home-to-vote/
Yet he accuses Prezi Granger of using Haitians as pawns for the election, using mostly racist undertones and spreading racist hate in the Guyana Times.
And yes, the PPP/ “Civic” are lusting to regain power and create a clique where they envision a post-oil Guyana without a few demographics. They are angry that Guyana is no longer the PPP-C demographic with Afro-Caribbeans, Cubans, Venezuelans, Chinese and a few Africans visiting Guyana.
There is lots of evidence that the PPP-C supporters dislike certain backgrounds of people.
Pegasus Hotel had a review where a waitress was racist against my Antigua sister because she was “Black”, and the waitress was “Indian”. AFAIK, Antigua is a wealthy country per capita, and the sister was visiting Guyana as a tourist, which meant that she had more disposable income than the “Indian” waitress.
This isn’t the only “microagression” that PPP-C supporters are doing against other people. There is a huge tension and fallout going on in GT because the PPP-C do not want certain types of people here, while the current government is powerless to do anything because the PPP-C agents spreading the hate are wealthy to start bogus libel lawsuits, yet they libel Prezi Granger.