Anyone closely associated with an ethnically divided society such as Guyana understands that because the saliency of ethnicity usually makes compromise difficult, much of the time is spent in or on the brink of political turmoil.
As we speak, the two major political parties, the PNCR and PPP/C, are locked in a political life and death struggle over the electoral list. Both claim that they want credible elections, which must mean elections with a list that is agreed by both of them or by a referee chosen by them. After much dispute, they found a referee – Justice Claudette Singh, the chairperson of the elections commission – who accepted their mandate and prioritised credible elections in the shortest possible time. However, since compromise is near impossible, they are doing what they do best to try and force the referee to accept their position by making extremely bogus appeals to extant normal legal rules and maneuvers that in the circumstances are largely redundant since it is the referee that needs to advise on a date for elections that cannot now fit within the written constitutional/legal requirements!
