President David Granger yesterday said he will “accept, and abide by” a Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) ruling which upheld the validity of the December 21 no confidence vote but stated that elections cannot be held before the conclusion of house-to-house registration.
“We did not believe that the no-confidence vote was valid and neither did we believe it reflected the will of Parliament or the Guyanese people [but] we respect the legal process and the decision of Carib-bean Court of Justice as well as the Constitution of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana,” he said in an address to the Nation from Bartica immediately after the court delivered its ruling.
Granger added that it is essential that Guyana holds fair, free and credible elections and argued that this cannot happen on the most recent list of voters as “it is outdated and corrupted.”
“It may hold as many as 200,000 incorrect entries. What’s more, those who have reached the age of 18 years since the last election are not on it,” the President stated, adding that “the Constitution entitles all citizens over the age of 18 the right to vote.”
This contention by the President and others in his administration has already been rebuffed. Notably the most recent voters list which expired on April 30 included all those persons who were 18 as of October 31, 2018. Additionally Guyana’s registration laws provide for persons 14 or older to be registered during any continuous registration process and be automatically added to the voters list upon reaching their majority. The last continuous registration period ended on July 18, 2018 therefore anyone who is 18 years of age and has ever registered is on the current voters list.
Granger went on to note that it is a democratic imperative that house-to-house registration be completed swiftly so that an election can be held at the earliest opportunity.
He reminded that the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission, Justice James Patterson, has previously advised that the Commission will be ready to hold elections in November 2019 after the completion of house-to-house registration.
“I now await a recommendation for a specific date from GECOM and I will then issue a proclamation,” he concluded.
The President did not acknowledge or respond to the CCJ ruling, also delivered yesterday, that his unilateral appointment of Patterson was unconstitutional.
The President instead stressed that Guyana will be heading to the polls where there will be a crucial choice for citizens.
“A choice to decide the future of our country and, most importantly, the future with regard to jobs, living standards, and education for our children,” the President said, adding that with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently indicating that Guyana is on the right path in respect to the management of its oil resources the choice will be to elect a government they trust to continue on this path, to keep Guyana moving forward, to secure a better life for every family with the united APNU+AFC coalition, or risk the future by returning to the past.
“Guyana, since my election in 2015, has been moving in the right direction after 23 years of stagnation under successive PPP administrations. Significant progress has been made. But real change is neither quick nor easy to come by,” he added.
