Conversation Tree

CURBING ELECTORAL MALPRACTICE

The PPP/C’s accepted defeat by 5,000 votes in 2015 and promptly departed from office, without a recount of votes in some challenged areas. It was generally believed that with a smooth political transition, the era of debilitating election controversies had come to an end and future results would be accepted, even if challenged in court, as is the usual practice. The events of March to August this year has proven that both rigged and disputed elections are here to stay and that if the APNU+AFC ever gets into office again, it will remain there forever, or for decades, as from the late 1960s to the early 1990s, by both hook and crook.

IT’S TIME FOR AN ENFORCEABLE MINISTERIAL CODE OF CONDUCT

The UK Home Secretary, Priti Patel, was accused of violating the Ministerial Code of Conduct by bullying staff. Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, appointed Sir Alex Allan, the Government’s independent adviser on standards, to investigate the allegations. He found them to be true. The Prime Minister rejected the conclusion and no action was taken against Ms. Patel, although she issued an apology for the behavior. Sir Alex resigned.

THE ARGENTINE FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY TEAM

Earlier this month it was recommended by Mr. Nigel Hughes, the lawyer representing Joel Henry, Isaiah Henry and Haresh Singh, three teenagers who were brutally murdered and two of whose bodies were found on 6 September at No. 3 Village, Cotton Tree, West Coast Berbice, that an organization known as the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (Equipo Argentino de Anthropologio Forensica – EAAF), a non-profit organization, be invited to Guyana to assist in the investigation. The team would include a forensic anthropologist, two forensic pathologists and a “criminalist.” The cost would be $4 million. The Government has shown reluctance. The Guyana Human Rights Association has launched a fundraising drive. In the absence of cooperation from the Government, and presumably the Police Force, it is not known how the work of the EAAF will be facilitated.

Trumpism Triumphs

Over the past weeks in the US, liberals and progressives, and some conservatives, expectantly awaited the results of the elections for the complete demolition of Trump and Trumpism by the American electorate. Instead, Trumpism has triumphed with 47-48 percent support. The frightening prospect has emerged, together with a Republican majority in the Senate, that Trumpism, now validated as a political strategy, will continue to influence the policies of the Republican Party, marked recently by obstruction to climate change measures, intensification of efforts to dismantle Obamacare and resistance to relief measures to working people, the middle class and small business.

A STORM IN A TEACUP

After the declaration of the election results on August 2, Ms. Oneidge Walrond, was invited by President Irfaan Ali to be the Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce. Ms. Walrond was not on the PPP/C’s List of Candidates but article 103(3) of the Constitution allows the President to appoint up to four persons as Ministers who are qualified to be elected as members of the National Assembly. They are popularly known as ‘technocrats.’ Ms. Walrond could not be appointed if she did not satisfy article 155 of the Constitution which relates to what has been known as ‘dual citizenship,’ but in fact applies more broadly. Ms. Walrond was a US citizen and when she received the invitation from the President she wrote the US authorities and renounced her citizenship. It turned out that Ms. Walrond had to fill some forms and await a confirmatory document. She received the document and has now presented it to the Clerk of the National Assembly, who requested them. It is important to emphasise that, according to Ms. Walrond, it is at or about the time of her appointment that she dis-acknowledged her allegiance to the US.