Conversation Tree

CONSULTATION BETWEEN THE PRESIDENT ALI AND OPPOSITION LEADER NORTON

The recent consultation process between President Ali and Opposition Leader Norton commenced on May 13 and was adjourned for the President to provide the CVs of the nominees. Mr. Norton also requested the grounds on which the nominees were selected. The President indicated that the meeting will be reconvened within a week. But it was not until May 27 that Mr. Norton was invited to a meeting with the President on May 30. Mr. Norton did not reply and did not attend the meeting. President Ali proceeded to make the appointments.

INDEPENDENCE IN THE ERA OF OIL

The earliest manifestation of Guyana’s new status in the international community is the attention it attracted between the 21 December, 2018, and the 2 March, 2020. On 21 December, 2018, the majority of members of the National Assembly supported a motion of no confidence in the Government. This event attracted international attention, but not international intervention, as the refusal of the Government to resign and hold elections within three months in accordance with the Constitution played itself out in Court.

THE BIOMETRIC PLAN

THE RIGGING OF ELECTIONS

The rigging of elections in Guyana has multi-dimensional aspects and in that it represents manifestations of the deepest fissures of our society. The Statements of Poll will never be produced by Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton and nothing the PPP/C Government does to provide an acceptable list of voters will satisfy APNU+AFC. Even if the biometric identity system is adopted, expensive as it is, flaws will be found at some point and at some level to demonstrate that it is being manipulated by the PPP. If removing all the names from the electoral list of persons who have died that are submitted by the Registrar of Births and Deaths, it will be claimed that persons in Guyana will overcome the obstacles of identification and finger staining at the polling station and vote in such large numbers for the PPP as to affect the outcome of the elections. Rigging, attempts to rig and accusations of rigging belie an embedded historical entitlement to political power.

SHARED GOVERNANCE HAS NO POLITICAL SUPPORT

In the case of the Attorney-General v Richardson, the then Attorney General, Basil Williams, challenged in the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) the ruling of the Guyana Court of Appeal striking down as unconstitutional the provision of the Constitution that limited a President to two terms. During the hearing, it was revealed that the constitutional provision was one of the outcomes of a constitutional reform process starting in Guyana in 1999 and ending in 2001, when the implementation of the reforms by the National Assembly by constitutional amendments. The CCJ called for the Report.