Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 28, 2018 AFC Column, Features / Columnists
In recent days, Guyana’s higher courts have dealt very fairly with the PPP, we believe.
In the first case, the Court of Appeal unanimously ruled that H.E. President David Granger did have the legal and constitutional right to unilaterally appoint to the Chairmanship of the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) a person whom he considers to be “fit and proper”, completely in keeping with the laws of this land.
In doing so, Guyana’s second highest judicial tribunal after the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) had come to the very same conclusion as Chief Justice (ag.) Madam Roxane George in a previous High Court ruling, i.e. that the Head of State is not compelled to choose a Chairman from any list provided by the Leader of the Opposition as the law also requires.
In the second case, Justice Navindra Singh dismissed a case also filed by the PPP, which had sought to scrub the names of about 50 electors from the list submitted by the AFC to GECOM for next month’s LGE. The candidates reside in the Bloomfield/Whim District in Region Six. That court ruled that it found no discrepancies on the AFC’s list.
GECOM’s Public Relations team weighed in after the ruling. “Based on what the law says, we know that we kept within the confines of the law. The parties submit their lists of candidates with nominators. Once you have reached the required amount, and met other criteria, then we have no basis on which to say that these persons were coerced. We have always (worked this way) and so the decision by the judges has really proven our case,” said the GECOM’S PRO.
So these latest rulings by two separate courts, their arriving at the same conclusion, should send the People’s Progressive Party back to the drawing board. It is apparent that they have been laboring under the misconception that if they shout loud enough, and sufficient people come forward to applaud them for their noises, and if they hold on to their faulty beliefs strongly enough, they would convince enough people that their actions were right.
Very few people doubt, to put it in the commonest terms, that the PPP believes that they own this country and the people in it, and that their old dictum of “what I say, goes” would continue ad nauseum. But the world does not work that way.
The two main operating forums in the party – the Central Committee and the Central Executive, should also note that the same two courts in the very recent past, dismissed cases brought by the State through the sitting Attorney General and other State legal representatives. These courts also tabled rulings against para statal agencies like the Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU), so the PPP’s accusations and posturing about unfairness and judicial bias are totally without merit.
There is no question that the local judiciary jealously guards its objectivity, and any accusations to the contrary get their hackles up. We wish to also remind the Opposition (and some of our own) that the Judiciary is an irrevocable arm of the Guyanese state, one of three – along with the Executive and the Legislature.
We also wish that the Opposition would keep in mind the fact that this Government and its Cabinet have taken our share of licks, losses and reprimands from all levels of the judiciary, from the Magistracy through to the Appeals court. All of us won’t ever like it, but we all are duty bound to respect every court decision and keep it sacrosanct, not curse the Judges out.
Now the PPP has pledged to take GECOM and its Chairman, Justice James Patterson to the CCJ. With all the words of encouragement we could muster, we do urge the PPP to approach this Caribbean body of learned Jurisprudence with facts and solid arguments. In truth, Guyanese do not wish for the CCJ to begin to regard cases from this country as not worthy of their time and talent, even as objective as they are. In short, please do not waste the Court’s time.
Former President Jagdeo has already attacked the credibility of the CCJ just as he has attacked GECOM and the AFC’s candidates in recent times. From all appearances, his party is laying the foundation for their approach to the electorate after their 2020 defeat. They have to have something to blame it on.
SOME PERSPECTIVE
The AFC has 400 candidates vying for local government seats across the country. Unfortunately, many of our supporters living and campaigning in traditional PPP strongholds have been harassed and intimidated by PPP members. Our Party Chairman Minister Khemraj Ramjattan, has said that the PPP is employing ‘defeatist tactics”.
“The PPP is fearful of the AFC’s challenge and is trying to use our party as a scapegoat for its campaign to discredit GECOM and the (LGE) elections,” VP Ramjattan said.
The PPP’s members have been approaching the persons on record as having nominated the AFC’s candidates, and they have been begging them to claim that they did so without understanding the full extent of their actions. In other words, the PPP has accused the people of being backward and illiterate, since they failed to understand that they were selecting a member of the AFC to represent their interests in their villages, instead of choosing the PPP’s acolytes whose past non-actions they are very familiar with.
The LGE is on Monday November 12, 2018. Please go out and vote for the candidate you KNOW will look after the interests of your community!
Please share this to every Guyanese including your house cats.
Apr 19, 2024
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