Health of a democracy at stake too

THE WORLD is riveted on the coronavirus threat and its negative effects, both in an economic sense and on the health of the global.

THE WORLD is riveted on the coronavirus threat and its negative effects, both in an economic sense and on the health of the global population. The health of both, the global economy and the peoples of the world is at stake and a variety of measures are being taken to address both.

This health threat overshadows a threat now facing the people of the Caribbean region, that is, the threat to democracy in Guyana.

Had it not been for the COVID-19, as the new virus has been labelled, Guyana would have been on the front burner of issues in the Caribbean. Yet, such are the stakes that we cannot afford to ignore what is happening there for it has huge implications for the future of political democracy in the entire region.

Almost two weeks after the March 2 general elections the Guyanese people are yet to be officially informed of the winner.

This is because of a dispute surrounding the results in one of the electoral districts, Region 4, ironically in the capital city, Georgetown.

The counting of votes there had been abruptly suspended on election night, but next morning it was announced that the ruling party coalition, which seemed on the verge of losing, had surprisingly bucked the trend and unofficially declared the winner.

Quite naturally there was strong reaction, not only from the opposition PPP which had claimed victory, but also from the whole broad range of foreign observer Missions, and from governments, in the Caribbean and beyond.

Following an Opposition challenge in the Guyana High Court, the Acting Chief Justice did not only rule that the Court has jurisdiction over the matter, but also, in an historic judgement delivered on Wednesday, deemed the declaration of results in Region 4 to be “null and void” and ordered the Guyana Elections Commission, GECOM, to obey the law and bring itself in conformity with the provisions of the Representation of the People Act by 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, March 12.

The Observer Missions, from CARICOM, the OAS, and the Commonwealth were unanimous in their rejection of the Region 4 process and called for the legal procedures to be followed.

The Guyana Opposition has demanded a full recount of Region 4 ballots and the confusion has already led to social unrest and instability.

The controversy has taken Guyana back to its darkest days of 1964 to 1992, when elections in that country were condemned worldwide as not being either “free or fair”. Incidentally, that situation was created by some western governments, primarily the UK and the USA in

the height of the Cold War. They had exploited racial divisions in Guyana to split the nationalist movement, to fan racial tensions between Indo-Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese, and supported the winners of “elections” widely considered to be fraudulent.

Since 1992, Guyana has brought itself broadly in conformity with accepted procedures and elections since then have been won by both of the two major race-based political groupings. However, this ridiculous effort to subvert democracy has once more raised the issue of the conduct of free and fair elections in Guyana and the region as a whole. Such is the concern that CARICOM has sent a high-level Heads of Government Mission, led by CARICOM Chair, Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley and including her successor SVG’s Dr Ralph Gonsalves to try and sort out the problems and to ensure compliance with lawful procedures.

The conduct of elections is fundamental to our democratic process and in ensuring that the will of the people is both exercised and respected. We here in SVG cannot ignore these fcts given the controversy that has arisen almost after every election since 1998. By and large we can be proud of our conduct so far, but there are outstanding issues which need to be addressed both where electoral reform is desired and political and constitutional reform is necessary.

It is time for our two political parties to seek common purpose on these matters.

We cannot afford more post-election confusion for we have been lucky so far in avoiding major political confrontation and violence.

Too many irresponsible persons with personal and narrow political agendas are playing on the loyalty, fears and even lack of knowledge of the electorate.

We must be far-sighted enough to be able to see what can happen after another closely-fought election with so much at stake.

I conclude by quoting from last week’s Editorial of the SEARCHLIGHT (March 6); “Yet it seems that rather than tackle the issues, we prefer to have political confrontation, endless and expensive court cases and run the risk of possible violent clashes. Should we not heed the wisdom of Ms. Combie-Martyr (Head of the CARICOM Observer Mission) and seek all-party consensus on electoral reform?………………….Are our leaders listening?”

● Renwick Rose is a community activist and social commentator.