Dear Editor,
The blow-up over the possible misappropriation of funds is an indication of the backwardness, mixed with corruption and deceit in the electoral process. To illustrate the backwardness part of the mix, let me take Guyanese back to 1952/1953 when I was a young school teacher at Dartmouth. District Commissioner Sholto Douglas, trained as all senior civil servants were in the laws, the rules and the ethics of public sector administration, called a meeting of public servants one Sunday morning, to hire us on the Essequibo Coast for the registration process for the 1953 elections which was the first with adult suffrage in Guyana. Previous elections required either an income or a property qualification to vote.
Adult suffrage included thousands of individuals who were illiterate.
