An election with fewer voters than ballots is fraudulent and manipulated
Dear Editor,
I am going to make this simple for Vishnu Bisram: how in heaven’s name is an election with1,097 voters and 1,599 ballots democratic and electorally fair and just? How is this a free and fair election? How is creating a voter list moments before an election with 1097 voters and 1599 ballots a free and fair election?
When the PNC did exactly this from 1964 to 1992, Vishnu Bisram fought them. When, as he claims, regimes did this in Zimbabwe, Haiti, Trinidad, Central America, Philippines, etc., he fought them. Yet, when the PPP’s 2013 congress election Presiding Officer himself announced to Demerara Waves there were 1097 voters and 1599 ballots at its 2013 internal party congress, Vishnu Bisram adamantly maintains “I have no evidence that there was fraud at the PPP August 2013 Congress…”
1599 ballots for 1097 voters is universally accepted as electoral fraud, because it assaults the fundamental democratic principle of one voter one ballot. No law, rule or policy could counter this fundamental truth.
Creating a voter list just before an election where there are more ballots than voters strongly suggests electoral manipulation. Bisram’s hypocrisy on this issue convinces me that he was never fighting for democracy in Guyana but for the PPP to return to power.
Bisram tells us that “Evidence of fraud at PNC Congress was public knowledge” yet there was no fraud or manipulation with 1097 voters and 1599 ballots in the PPP congress elections. For Bisram’s information, I did acknowledge the democratic failures of the PNC and AFC when I said this “Bisram would not admit to the very evident shenanigans of the PPP 2013 congress elections, but readily tarred and feathered the AFC and PNC for their democratic failures.” (see my letter titled “The PPP continues to fall since 2011”, KN, Sept 16, 2013).
Bisram most deceitfully states about me “He is okay with rigging in the PNC and manipulation of voting within the AFC but is against manipulation of voting at PPP Congress.” This is a callous lie and ludicrous falsity against me. So is his accusation that I suggest it is fine for the AFC to wait a few years before opening its election to the full membership.
I recommend Bisram reads this letter I wrote in Stabroek News “Elites control Guyana’s two major parties” (SN, August 28, 2012). I said this in that letter “The AFC will head down that same road if it does not change its ways.”
Bisram should also read my letter titled “These budget cuts will likely be reversed and we’ll be back to square one” (KN, May 3, 2012) in which I stated “Frankly, Guyanese people are wasting their time voting for the PPP, PNC/APNU and the AFC. They are all the same…. APNU is one of the laziest political parties ever constituted. The AFC tried, but its leadership is a liability.”
I refer Bisram to yet another letter I wrote titled “Institutional building must start from the bottom up” (SN, March 2, 2011) in which I said the following “Dr Khemraj waxes supreme on the institutional building capacity of the AFC and I don’t doubt him, but why is it that the PNC conducted the nation’s first partially open primary process to elect its presidential candidate while the AFC used a milder version of the PPP’s draconian process? Wasn’t the AFC supposed to be the PNC in this regard? Doesn’t institutional building start with the institution that wants to commit the institutional building?
Frankly, if an open primary (partial even) was conducted, the AFC would have gained a large number of fence-sitting votes. I can’t trust men who talk a good talk, because it is men who talk a good talk who talked us into this corner. Is talking of true democracy enough when actions can speak much louder? The AFC will have its congress to ratify Mr Ramjattan and Ms Holder. Why not call a congress in the first place and let Ramjattan and Holder get picked by the wider membership rather than by a small committee which may be stacked with those who are uncritical?
Until significant institutional reform commences at the stage of political parties and how power is obtained at that level, I cannot trust those entities. Even the PNC which made history with its presidential selection process had flaws in its process, namely it was not wide enough and Mr Corbin remains a thorn in terms of the issue of who becomes the Opposition Leader.”
I called for open primaries in March 2011, Bisram is calling for them now. Clearly, in his mind and based on his twisted logic, Bisram has more democratic credentials than Maxwell.
M. Maxwell
