PNC-led Opposition can no longer hide behind their hypocrisy

Dear Editor,

Theleaders of the PNC+APNU/AFC coalition cabal are cowards whose political strategy is designed to frustrate engaging stakeholders and prevent the Guyana Elections Commission from executing Local Government Elections (LGEs). Their frantic and obvious desperation is to avoid facing the electorate for as long as possible.

For the umpteenth time, agents of the cabal are advancing frantic duplicitous legal challenges aimed at disturbing and ultimately delaying the LGEs process. Following numerous failed court challenges, Carol Smith-Joseph and Vincent Alexander again applied to the High Court to stop GECOM from holding LGEs on the 12th of June, 2023.

Accordingly, Smith-Joseph is contending that Article 72 of the Constitution and Section 3 (1)(a) and (b) of the Local Authority Act Chapter 28:03 were violated. The new diabolical contortion relates to issues concerning the adjustments of a few boundaries in some constituencies, changes that the cabal and their agents did not oppose when in 2018, the APNU Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan flagrantly abused timely transparency procedures to impose.

In 2016 and 2018, several adjustments and gerrymandering took place without consultation and discussion with the then-Opposition. As a result, several new towns and NDCs were formed, boundaries were adjusted, and the PPP/C did not move to the courts.

In June 2018, Minister Bulkan published an order to remove fourteen constituencies from well-established Local Authority Areas in the Official Gazette.

The then gerrymandering of the affected constituencies’ boundaries created significant confusion and concerns for the citizens who demanded changes without any resolution. Effectively, the splitting of the NDCs created severe problems as several issues were pending since the 2016 Local Government Elections.

Among the essential changes, for example, the Malgre Tout and Canals NDC suffered serious unsolved boundary problems that would have realised residents voting to elect a council governing a constituency outside their boundary in favour of perceived PNC stronghold candidates. Situations like these had to be fixed for transparency and fairness.

On the occasion as mentioned above, there were no dissenting concerns from the likes of Vincent Alexander and Carol Smith, while the PNC’s Commissioners at GECOM under President Granger’s appointed James Patterson as the Chairman, allowing the boundary issues to be dealt with according to the fantasy of the cheating Keith Lowenfield as CEO of the GECOM Secretariat.

Contrary to Bulkan’s approach, Minister Nigel Dharamlall legally wrote GECOM to demarcate the boundaries in some constituencies based on the population and the geographic reality of the Local Authority Areas. This was done after the GECOM Logistics team thoroughly investigated the respective LAAs. As a result, GECOM, within the organisation’s scope and ambit, proceeded to make adjustments by placing people in their respective constituencies according to their addresses.

Notably, the Minister ensured citizens and stakeholder groups were fully aware of the specific boundaries in each constituency before they could check the electoral lists and then extract the candidates’ names from the voters’ list. This list must be made available for Local Government Elections according to constituency. For this to happen, the stakeholders must be clear about the boundaries, and the voters’ list must be thoroughly checked to ensure that all the candidates and ‘backers’ of the respective Lists are in the correct place.

Unlike the PNC approach imposed by Bulkan, no untimely surprises were sprung on the populace for specific constituencies that were impacted. Instead, these issues were thoroughly discussed and agreed to at the GECOM meetings. Following the proper changes/adjustments, these boundaries were thoroughly addressed. The modifications were made and published in the Official Gazette, ensuring that these changes are not new to GECOM and Guyanese.

Unfortunately, the Opposition will not be contesting in 291 constituencies. Hence, the PPP/C will be enjoying a massive victory before the voting. The situation informs the fear and actions of the Opposition’s rank and file. The passionate and aggressive campaign that the PPP/C has embarked upon attracts thousands of people, and the cross-over is significant. The visible cross-over of support on this occasion is not by individuals but by passionate groups tremendously impressed with the PPP/C’s roll-out of their inclusive development agenda and achievements.

The weak leadership of the Opposition is deteriorating rapidly. And there are severe deficiencies and deliberate intention to frustrate the ‘stakeholders’ in the upcoming Local Government Elections. However, the PPP/C leadership is visibly, and very potent, on the ground. The President, Dr Irfaan Ali, and the General Secretary of the PPP, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, are marshalling their forces to achieve victory.

The PNC-led Opposition can no longer hide behind their hypocrisy; the LGEs must be held on the 12th of June, 2023!

Sincerely,

Neil Kumar