ELECTION LEGISLATION REFORM

A letter from prominent citizens in SN last Friday called for consultation on electoral reforms. But drafting of the bill may have already commenced requiring the publication of the SOPs by GECOM immediately upon receipt and the creation of appropriate offences with severe penalties for election staff who violate election rules.

IT TOOK LONGER THAN EXPECTED

It took longer than expected for the challenge to the jurisdiction of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) to materialise. In expressing support for electoral reform in an interview on May 14, Leader of the PNCR and former President David Granger said that the Guyana Court of Appeal, and not the CCJ, should rule on […]

THAT ‘BLOATED’ ELECTORAL LIST

In 2010 I wrote an article on the overseas vote in which I argued that the Constitution of Guyana permitted all Guyanese citizens over the age of 18 to vote. Since there was no residence stipulation, Guyanese residing overseas have a right to vote. As readers would imagine, it elicited some controversy. I was a […]

MEDIATING THE POLITICAL IMPASSE

The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Joe Harmon, has lamented the neglect by the Caricom Secretariat and its Chairman, Prime Minister Keith Rowley, of acknowledging his letters requesting their mediation of the current stalemate between the Government and Opposition. The stalemate has arisen because the Opposition Leader’s request of President Ali for a meeting to […]

THE FUTURE OF THE PNC

The spectacle displayed by the APNU+AFC in Parliament during last week signals the PNC’s return to the Opposition. Its loss of office in 1992 after 28 years was marked by ethnic violence, disruption of the National Assembly and vocal hostility therein to a PPP Government Minister of African Guyanese ancestry. As if history is repeating […]