‘EVERYTHING IS GRIST TO THE HISTORIAN’S MILL’

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 18th April 2020, 9:00 pm

Interest in “Ian on Sunday” of April 12, (“Everything is interesting,”) attracted not only my attention but that of SN’s editorial writer last Friday, days after I had completed this effort. Ian McDonald related how he conducted a “great clearing operation” and lyrically described the relief: “Disposing of detritus is a little like returning life to greater simplicity and more focused meaning.” But then came the vandal’s remorse. What if, in destroying what would be considered rubbish, is an act of vandalism, because “everything is grist to the historian’s mill,” citing Joel Benjamin, Guyana’s late outstanding archivist and bibliophile.

Continue reading “‘EVERYTHING IS GRIST TO THE HISTORIAN’S MILL’”

THE DARING ABSURDITY OF THE 156-DAY PLAN

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 11th April 2020, 9:00 pm

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 each ballot box. That meant that only three counting stations, counting one box at a time, could operate at any one time. At this pace, and with over 2,000 ballot boxes to be counted, the time of 156 days was arrived at.

Continue reading “THE DARING ABSURDITY OF THE 156-DAY PLAN”

RECOUNT

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 4th April 2020, 9:00 pm

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 against the decision of the Full Court which ruled last week that the High Court had no jurisdiction to determine Moore’s case. Moore obtained injunctions against GECOM preventing the recount of the votes of Region 4. Moore’s case was dismissed.

Continue reading “RECOUNT”

GECOM SITS AND WAITS – LIKE THE OLD GUMBIE CAT

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 28th March 2020, 9:00 pm

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 Gumbie Cat.” The struggle for free and fair elections had moved beyond the confines of the PPP and its supporters, to the WPA and its supporters and then to wider civil society. A student of both poetry and Marx, among other subjects, our tragic elections history, now repeating itself sadly as farce, again depicted by the Gumbie Cat, would not have escaped Fitzpatrick, a dominant and engagingly popular force in civil society’s contribution to a democratic Guyana.

Continue reading “GECOM SITS AND WAITS – LIKE THE OLD GUMBIE CAT”

ULITA MOORE AND THE RECOUNT OF VOTES

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 21st March 2020, 9:00 pm

Just as the Elections Commission (“the Commission”) was getting its act together, gingerly tiptoeing its way to a decision to recount the votes cast in the general and regional elections held on March 2, Ulita Moore, a candidate for the APNU+AFC in the regional elections, caused to be filed a case in court seeking a variety of declarations and orders against the Commission. The most important order sought is that the recounting of the votes is unconstitutional. The basis of the contention is that the Commission cannot do so on the terms contained in an Aide Memoire signed by the President and Opposition Leader. The court granted an interim injunction that had the effect of putting the recount on hold until the hearing and determination of the case.

Continue reading “ULITA MOORE AND THE RECOUNT OF VOTES”
The Conversation Tree is both physical and philosophical. The physical is the tree itself, which has given its name to the road from which it originates at the intersection of the Rupert Craig Highway. It was reputedly first planted by Napleton William King in 1876 to celebrate the birth of his son Napleton Walter. As...
Read More

Recent Posts

Other Posts