ChrisRam

March 15, 2019March 15, 2019

GECOM already has access to money for elections, the three-month period is not unusual

GECOM and the Ministry of Finance seem to be engaged in an effort to mislead the public of Guyana over the availability and use of funds approved in the 2019 Budget to conduct elections pursuant to the March 21 vote of No Confidence. Putting up one road block after another, it was not until the middle of February – around the halfway stage of the three-month deadline mandated for the holding of elections – did GECOM seem to need clarification on whether or not it could spend any part of the 2019 allocation of $5,371,061,000 on the elections.

An article in the Stabroek News of February 19, 2019 which quotes Finance Ministry officials, is headlined “GECOM needs parliamentary approval to use budget for new polls.” That this is not true goes charitably to the question of competence and the ability of the Ministry’s officials to read and understand, or more sinisterly, to its intention to become part of the conspiracy by elements of GECOM to frustrate the vote of the National Assembly.

March 9, 2019March 9, 2019

Kirton somehow managed to avoid saying it was President Granger who is at fault

Concerned that President Granger’s refusal to name a date for elections can make Guyana the Region’s newest dictatorship, your letter writer Mr. Wesley Kirton implores “our leaders”…“[to] spare no effort to ensure that our dear country is not brought into global disrepute.” Mr. Kirton volunteered that his letter was being written while he was viewing television coverage of the UN Human Rights Council meeting at which several nations are condemning Saudi Arabia on its human rights record. No doubt Mr. Kirton understands that the right to vote is one of the most sacred human rights available (Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights adopted in the Guyana Constitution) and that having refused to name a date, Granger is not only defying the National Assembly and the Courts – two of the three arms of the state – but also denying Guyanese of their human rights.

What is strange is the suggestion by Kirton that it is some unnamed “our leaders” and not specifically Granger, who are bringing the country into global disrepute. Kirton knows as well as anyone else that it is Granger and no one else who has the power to name a date for elections. But Kirton then shields Granger from the consequence of his failure to name a date by his (Kirton’s) attempt to rewrite Article 106 (7) of the Constitution. With only thirteen days left before the expiry for the holding of the elections, Kirton belatedly calls on Granger to name a date and let GECOM justify its refusal to hold the elections on the date named!

March 7, 2019March 7, 2019

Granger taking country into dangerous blind alley by refusing to uphold constitution

Yesterday was truly a sad day for anyone who believes in the supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law. President David Granger it seems has rejected the proposals by the Leader of the Opposition Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo for the naming of a date for elections and for consequential matters following from that. Incredibly, and without any regard for the Constitution which I repeat, he is sworn to preserve and uphold, Granger informed Jagdeo that he has to “engage GECOM on the issue and thereafter another meeting will be held.”

If Granger wishes to be taken as seriously intent on observing the constitutional mandate imposed on him by the Constitution, he should at least have had that conversation with his handpicked Chairman of the Elections Commission before meeting Jagdeo so that at the very least he would have been able to make a meaningful contribution to the meeting.

March 3, 2019March 4, 2019

President Granger needs to stop the charade and call elections

It is now 70 days since the no-confidence motion was passed on December 21, 2018. That means that there are only 20 days remaining for the constitutionally prescribed period for holding elections. However, observing the pronouncements of President Granger and the Ministers of his Government and his appointees to GECOM, including the self-proclaimed non-paladin James Patterson, one has to be forgiven for believing that such elections are due at the earliest, 20 months from now. Minister Ramjattan loosely introduces the doctrine of necessity, seemingly oblivious to the more basic doctrine of constitutionality while his colleague, Attorney General Mr Basil Williams is reported in another section of the media as stating that the “Constitution is wrong.”

According to Mr Williams, it is GECOM’s duty and not that of the President to call elections. GECOM’s Chairman, on the other hand, claims that he is waiting on directions from the President to call elections and that in any case, GECOM does not have the funds to conduct those elections. Both statements demonstrate a remarkable level of ignorance or are clearly opportunistic and politically motivated, notwithstanding a statement made by one of the Attorneys-at-Law at the Court of Appeal Cases Management that the matters before that court were about the law. What the attorney did not state was that attorneys take their instructions from their clients, in this case the politicians, whose sole purpose and objective is to delay the holding of elections. This is not about the law – it is plain lawlessness.

February 27, 2019February 27, 2019

Ramjattan cited doctrine of necessity to justify failure of Administration to comply with No Confidence Motion

Last Saturday, while on a brief trip to New York, I appeared on a televised town hall style debate moderated by Mr. Sase Singh, and also featuring Vice President and Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan. The focus of the programme was the No Confidence Motion which saw the defeat of the APNU+AFC Government and its implications. Unfortunately, at several points during the programme I had to play the role of fact checker in response to Mr. Ramjattan’s cavalier disregard for the facts, his misquoting of the Constitution particularly in relation to Article 106 (7) [the holding of elections], Article 162 (8) dealing with the extremely limited powers of GECOM regarding the postponing of elections; his repetition of the visibly discredited notion that the lowest majority of 65 is 34; his misciting of the Vanuatu case despite the dismissal of that case’s relevance to Guyana; and his glib reference to the doctrine of necessity to justify the refusal and failure of the Granger Administration to comply with the No Confidence Motion.

The only accurate comment by Mr. Ramjattan on the doctrine was its association with Mr. J.O.F Haynes. In fact, I would make bold to say that Haynes’ brilliant, erudite and exhaustive analysis of the doctrine and its application to not one but two revolutionary changes in Grenada – a coup in 1979, and the removal of the 1979 revolutionary government in 1983, all of which came to an end with the American invasion on 25 October 1983.