By not naming MPs, PPP/C can force new elections because of GECOM’s rigging
June 10, 2015 By
Dear Editor,
It’s Guyana’s new PNC coalition crisis. Right now there are no PPP/C MPs, none have been named, and none officially gazetted within the legal time frame required for all to be included simultaneously with all other parties’ MPs.
GECOM’s half baked pie is without the entire lot of 420 blackbirds. It does not set up who is the king.
Moreover, that Kaieteur News article of June which erroneously reported that the Clerk of the National Assembly Mr Sherlock Isaacs said “that should PPP/C MPs miss the first six consecutive sittings in two calendar months, they would essentially lose their (32) seats, which would be declared vacant”, currently has no jurisdictional authority on any MP.
Only sworn in MPs come under the Standing Orders and Speaker. No legal violation occurred, no sanction is necessary..
Legally, only GECOM has responsibility to procure the list of MPs from the PPP/C. Should the PPPC play hard to get and refuse to provide the list – they are not legally compelled to do so by law – the Speaker cannot legally fill any seats which he may declare vacant.
The PPP/C can, by non cooperation with a perceived evil as a sacred duty (Gandhian non-violence), force a new snap elections all over again just by doing nothing.
With Venezuela in its aggressive sabre rattling mode, all is not hunky dory should those Guyanese citizens in Venezuela were to be all expelled, their property seized and they had to return home with a Guyana government in crisis.
GECOM is required by law to fulfill this most critical function to include and conclude its official duties by official gazetting the complete 2015 election results. It has failed to do so. The May 26 deadline came and passed with no one minding the store.
Why is violating the law a GECOM birthright and equally true for some others? No one is above the law, including GECOM or its staff. Face it. GECOM is damned if it does and damned if it does not.
They compound their illegalities by public conformation of official negligence in not simultaneously including all the legally required information at the same time when and if they proceed to print the Gazette.
First, by its negligence, then by omission, they make matters worse. Leaving out the names of the PPP/C MPs officially disenfranchises and invalidates the entire 2015 elections.
Is GECOM prepared to send the country down the sewer? Which court will uphold breaking the law or breaking part?
Either the reporter or the Clerk should quote which National Assembly Standing Order allows the democratic will of the people to be overturned in their absence by declaring their seats vacant.
The onus was certainly on the reporter and editor to do what is right. Such lack of professional oversight needs more vigilant oversight and rectification.
But there is no crisis as ominous as this may appear. The ball is both in GECOM’s and the PNC coalition’s court to become humble to the PPP/C. Time ticks on.
Sultan Mohamed
