…on elections date
“Now you see it; now you don’t!” That, of course, is the spiel of the card players on the hustle at the street corner as he diligently works to separate you from your hard-earned cash. David Granger has clearly learnt a thing or two from them as he works even more diligently to separate us from the sovereignty we hold over this land as its citizens. “Now you hear it; now you don’t!” has been his spiel with the announcement of an elections date when we’d be exercising that sovereignty to choose the next government!!
Now, for the longest while, he pretended he couldn’t even announce the date without first given permission by the GECOM Chair! But with his latest shuffle of the cards, he revealed what all knew from the very beginning: he was just playing the fool to misdirect our attention as he went ahead to fix the elections. The man just quoted Art 61 of the Constitution in its entirety when he finally purported to announce an elections date!!
To wit: “An election of members of the National Assembly…shall be held on such a day within three months after every dissolution of Parliament as the President shall appoint by proclamation”!! Where in there is any instruction to first consult with GECOM?? The Constitution is just as clear about the role of GECOM in matters election. Art 161 (1) says they’re in charge of “registration of electors”, and “administrative conduct of all elections of members of the National Assembly”.
The only time they can get involved in elections dates is AFTER the President proclamation (Art 161). So, after jerking the Guyanese people around for months, Granger was unfrocked.
But even as he’s cornered and running out of wriggle room, Granger’s reflexively compelled to keep on jerking off the nation. First, he said that “the earliest date for elections is March 2, 2020,” but he had to return to Parliament to have the date for announcing this approved since Sept 18 was the drop-dead date!! For a lot of even his own supporters, this was the final straw since even they had been on tenterhooks with the growing tensions in the country. Never mind the US, the UK, the EU, the Commonwealth and every NGO worth its salt telling him to set a date!!
Finally, he was caught on tape telling some reporters March 2 WILL be the date…regardless!
Can we believe him this time?? Not this Eyewitness! Fool me once, shame on me; fool me a hundred times??
Even if Granger issues a proclamation, expect a twist!!
…on voters’ list
GECOM announced that a “Claims and Objections” (C&O) will begin next Tuesday, Oct 1 on the Preliminary Voters List (PVL) extracted from the National Register of Registrants (NRR) of everyone over 18 years old. Now since the beginning of the year when the dust from the NCM was just settling, the Opposition’s been asking for just this.
Absolutely NOT, cried the PNC. That PVL was CONTAMINATED by the wily PPP and so a new H2H Registration was needed. That, of course, meant the PPP “contaminated” themselves out of office in 2015!! Anyhow, the H2H was launched by Patterson but truncated by his successor with 370,000 names registered in the absence of PPP scrutineers.
So what happens to these 370,000 names costing billions to collect, since in the C&O folks not on the old PVL can be added on??
There will be some nebulous “comparison” of the two lists. Does this mean “merging” is out? So what happens if 70,000 new named are discovered? A new C&O period of 48 days?
So whither March 2??
…on dual citizens
When Carl Greenidge was outed as a dual citizen and forced to relinquish his portfolio as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Granger promptly baptised him as “Foreign Secretary”.
Who does he think he’s fooling?
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