THE DARING ABSURDITY OF THE 156-DAY PLAN

The daring absurdity of the 156-day plan for the recounting of the ballots of the March 2 elections begs the question of what exactly goes on at meetings of the Elections Commission. The word about is that the working principle, suggested by a Commissioner is that two Commissioners should be present at the counting of […]

RECOUNT

It will not be until 11 am of the day of the publication of this article in SN that the Guyanese public will know whether a recount by GECOM is going to take place soon, or at all. That is when the Court of Appeal will give its decision in the appeal by Ulita Moore […]

GECOM SITS AND WAITS – LIKE THE OLD GUMBIE CAT

The headline is not an original formulation. It is partially borrowed from the late Miles Fitzpatrick, then a columnist in the Stabroek News. He was writing just before the reforms of the early 1990s about the Elections Commission and its Chair, Sir Harold Bollers, a former Chief Justice of Guyana, in an article entitled “The […]

PHANTOM VOTES

Section 84 of the Representation of the People Act is quite clear. It requires the Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo, in the presence of persons entitled to be present, to “ascertain the total votes cast in favour of each list in the district by adding up the votes recorded in favour of the list in accordance […]

FREE, FAIR AND PEACEFUL ELECTIONS

Some foreign observers are unaware of Guyana’s electoral history. One wonders whether such observers are qualified to observe Guyana’s elections. They would not know, for example, that by itself, this history creates a perpetual tension at election time because of general fears of a repeat of election rigging. They would not know also that this […]