The three political parties that invoked section 22 of the Representation of the People Act (the Act) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Friday setting out the principles on which both their pre- and post-election cooperation will be based. The invocation of section 22, for the first time in Guyana’s electoral history, is one small step which can lead to a giant leap for Guyana’s future. The joinder of lists by the three political parties, A New and United Guyana (ANUG), the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) and The New Movement (TNM), under section 22 has now led to the unprecedented step of the signing of an MOU for political cooperation among the political parties which have joined together to form the combination of lists, an event among competing political parties that has never hitherto occurred in Guyana.
Continue reading “ONE SMALL STEP IN GUYANA’S POLITICS CAN LEAD TO A GIANT LEAP FOR ITS FUTURE”SAD TO SAY
It is sad to say that the Global Witness report, “Signed Away,” analyzing EEPGL’s (the ExxonMobil controlled Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited) agreement with Guyana and the damning circumstances leading up to its signing, will not influence the vote of more than a handful of people, if so many, at the elections on March 2. The report’s main conclusion is that: “Evidence….suggests that Guyana got a bad deal because it may not have been well represented in subsequent negotiations by Minister Raphael Trotman and his team.” The report suggests that “Trotman presented Exxon with feeble negotiation terms and ignored expert advice that more financial information was needed before he signed the licence.”
Continue reading “SAD TO SAY”SHOULD GUYANA TAKE NOTE OF ISABEL DOS SANTOS?
By 2012 African journalists were questioning the origins of Isabel dos Santos’s wealth. But as one commented: “Who’s going to listen to an African journalist?” By 2018, no one bothered asking anymore. (Guardian 24/1/20). Rui Pinto, a Portuguese hacker, facing imprisonment for hacking into football and publishing and exposing questionable practices, also did the same in relation to Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of former President of Angola for 38 years, Jose Edwardo dos Santos. He hacked and released, in what has become known as the ‘Luanda Leaks,’ a mountain of information, over 700,000 documents, exposing the origin, sources and amassing of the over US$2 billion fortune of Isabel dos Santos. The documents were obtained by the Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). They have been investigated by 37 media organisations.
Continue reading “SHOULD GUYANA TAKE NOTE OF ISABEL DOS SANTOS?”THE SECURITY OF THE BALLOT BOXES
The history of tampering with ballot boxes commenced in 1968 and ended in 1985. At the 1992 elections, wooden ballot boxes made in Guyana, with the bottom and sides nailed together, ceased being used for elections and ballot boxes manufactured in Canada were acquired for use in elections. These latter ballot boxes were made of plastic and formed a single, whole unit. Sections were not cobbled together by nails or clamps. The era of ballot box tampering came to an end. No allegations were made since 1992 that the ballot boxes were tampered with simply because they were tamper proof.
Continue reading “THE SECURITY OF THE BALLOT BOXES”NEW PARTIES CREATE ELECTORAL HISTORY
A number of new parties have created electoral history in Guyana by, for the first time, joining together to form a combination of lists whose votes shall be combined to determine the number of seats they will collectively obtain. This has never happened before and is not quite the full-fledged unity among new parties that many have called for. But it reflects the determination of new parties to create a unified effort to challenge the electoral domination of the major parties which are forced by the Guyanese context to strive for ethno-political domination as their core, but unspoken, political objective. New parties have struggled for a unification of their efforts, which has been driven by a deep and profound desire among a critical mass of the Guyanese electorate for a path out of the dead end of ethnic politics which threatens to engulf us for 20, 30, even 40 years in the future, being the aspiration of one ambitious leader. Not unexpectedly, the electorate is revolting against this objective and the new parties, by this agreement, hope to derail such ambitions from any source whatsoever.
Continue reading “NEW PARTIES CREATE ELECTORAL HISTORY”