GECOM HAS LOST ALL CLAIM TO CREDIBILITY

The jury is still out on whether GECOM will deliver credible election results, notwithstanding the widespread demands of the international community and a broad cross-section of Guyanese. In any rational society, the entire membership of GECOM would have resigned due to its failure to honour its constitutional responsibilities. By resigning GECOM would be demonstrating its […]

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 […]

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 […]

ALL OVER AGAIN

When I first encountered the issue of rigging of elections in Guyana, I was a student activist. Along with a team, I investigated the electoral roll in the UK and found that it was totally and massively fabricated. I led a delegation to Sir John Carter, the Guyana High Commissioner to the UK, and protested […]

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 […]