Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 27, 2011 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
This country has less than half a million voters yet election after election we cannot get pre-election bureaucracy into shape. There cannot be a scientific answer. The mystery must be supernatural. Prime Minister Patrick Manning of Trinidad & Tobago called a general poll two years before it was due. There was not even a minor hiccup. The opposition won.
Why can’t we get anything right in this territory named Guyana?
My honest feeling is that zero sum politics and pursuit of absolute power have destroyed Guyana. If there is election-related turmoil over the absence of a December poll, Guyana may be set back by decades and decades. No one wants political instability in this land.
The most radical anti-government activist does not want tempest. It serves no purpose. It affects every citizen. It returns Guyana to primitive times.
Can we avoid it? Mr. Robert Corbin on the Benschop internet radio programme was incandescently clear – if elections aren’t held in December, the PNC will not accept the PPP in power. Legally, only one avenue is available to this country if GECOM cannot shape its bureaucracy in time to administer the poll.
Parliament has to vote through a two-thirds majority to postpone the elections. Only that avenue is available. Resort to the courts cannot prolong the life of the ruling party’s presence in government. No law provides for a judge to grant an order extending the life of the presidency and cabinet. Only a two-thirds vote in Parliament can do so.
This means that the PNC will have to side with the PPP. It is not possible in the realm of human behaviour for the PNC to participate in a decision that gives the PPP more time to wield power. I have heard many credible persons say that this will happen in December. I don’t believe it. I don’t accept it. The PPP’s legal mandate to administer state affairs comes to an end in December. Why would a party that has the influence to stop the prolongation of that process simply do so without analyzing the consequences?
The PNC has nothing to gain and everything to lose if it gives the PPP more time in power.
This will not only break up the PNC, thus virtually ending its life as a Guyanese institution, but it would be pointless for the PNC to contest the election because it will not get ballots. No PPP detractor is going to vote for the PNC knowing that this was the party that allowed the PPP to rule Guyana for longer than it should.
The consequences as I see it is the eventual election will either be won by the PPP or the AFC. There will not be an APNU or PNC if elections are held six months or a year after December 2011 and that was made possible by the PNC.
There are only two choices open up to the PNC (not APNU) if GECOM cannot implement the processes that would make the election a success. Give the PPP the extra time in office but no decisions and policies must be made by the President and his Ministers and senior public sector managers. In other words, Government just allows the public sector to do routine chores. This is not going to be popular with APNU constituencies. Untold numbers will not accept this.
It would seem that the only pathway the PNC has is to dialogue with the PPP to have an interim government.
The legal mechanics are not intricate for this to be done. It simply means that the PPP Government brings in opposition parliamentarians and gives them Cabinet posts. The PNC should not enter negotiations without the AFC. If it does that, it will alienate sections of the population. This is not the end of the matter. Instability may show its head if the PPP rejects this formula.
Curiosity will dominate the face of every citizen if we cannot have the December poll but the PPP insists that it remains in government. The resulting intrigue will centre on why the PNC should allow the PPP to stay on.
Many would want to know if the PPP is not being impertinent to say to the nation that it must be given an extension of power simply because it wants it.
The world doesn’t work like that. Power in a zero sum society like Guyana is tempestuously contested with every passing day.
It is a mystery to know why an opposition party that wants that power will just shrug its shoulders and allow the incumbent to rule on. I doubt the poll can be held in December.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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