Dear Editor,
Recently, the APNU/AFC coalition summoned a meeting with GECOM Chairwoman with which she refused and in quick succession, she issued a follow-up statement that the coalition meet with the entire Commission and not a single individual of the Commission.
This was a quick, decisive and aboveboard response to a party that is known for its underhand, backdoor approach to certain statutory bodies, the Chairwoman was telling that party that no more would she entertain any private meetings between herself and any political entity.
The message was in pellucid language as clear as the noonday sun, meaning that everything from henceforth would have to be transparent and open for scrutiny by all of us. It also meant that sanity could have returned to GECOM after that near disgraceful conclusion to the March 2, 2020 Election. It is good to know that some dignity could be brought back into the halls of the electoral machinery of Guyana.
In essence, the Chairwoman was saying to all and sundry, for the halls of electoral justice to function properly all political interference must be kept out of the Commission. Now that kind of language quite naturally spells doom for the PNC party that has a history of tampering with the Commission. In this regard, the Opposition-appointed gang of three boycotted the last meeting of the Commission. Well, these guys would certainly have a lot of walking out to do, as the new normal of things quickly kicks in.
The point is, the PNC has to come to the realisation that no more can they use GECOM for their own narrow political ends – that stomping ground phenomenon of theirs is no more. The sum total of it all is the Guyana Elections Commission has to be a place where sanity, stability and fairness exists.
But all of this did not come easily when you take a look into the short history of the Commission affairs, it was quite a torrid way up to this point. Claudette Singh was the 19th name submitted to Granger which he readily accepted, which tells you that there was a sinister motive behind his readied acceptance of her. That motive was for her to carry out his biddings in rigging the elections.
As the story goes, she was appointed there to be the rubber stamp of APNU party with the three Commissioners leading the assault. However, when Singh realised that the rest of the political parties would not accept it nor would the international community countenance it, she quickly backpedalled into a more rational and legal approach to things. She could not savour the idea that by this time she would have been cooling off in a common jail with her rigging associates smiling on the outside in perfect freedom that they would have caught a stupid Chairwoman who was dumb enough to fulfil their illegal plan. This was too much for her to bear!
So, she made a clean 180-degree turnaround and put that rigging cabal into its place, no more closed-door private meetings, no more would she be held hostage and be near goaded into an illegal deal to get her signature on to some rigged SoPs, no more compromise, this nonsense must stop now. No wonder she is the most hated woman in APNU’s book!
Guyana must measure up to the standards of an Elections Commission with all the international trappings afforded it, down with rigging, down with illegal backdoor deals. Guyana must enter into the democratic circle of countries and that decision is now!
Respectfully,
Neil Adams
