We have emerged from a very fraught period. The 2015 election was beautifully run until the time came to convey the results to a tensely waiting world. At this point uncertainty, confusion and suspicion supervened – basically because less than sensible constitutional legalities govern, complicate, confuse and delay the prompt declaration of the results of voting conducted and counted with exemplary transparency and fairness at the place of poll. Obviously this curate’s egg of an electoral process – the preparation, voting and immediate counting excellent, the subsequent tabulation and declaration of results rotten – must be changed in future.
In the aftermath of this unworthy fracas there is bound to be a period of settling down into a new scheme of things. Much will depend on how the new government – and in particular President David Granger – acts and behaves to establish a new normal which is fair and free from victimisation and also from triumphant on-the-spot reversals. Fear and unease in half the population must be dispersed as quickly as possible. In the absence of public confidence and peace it is hard to cultivate private virtues.
A large part of what is needed is to embed in the body politic and the country as a whole a habit of
