Dear Editor,
Dr Henry Jeffrey writes a long epistle about voter registration reform. He accuses a questionable PPPC government for making unilateral changes through the use of its one seat majority.
The underlying crux of his contention is that there should be a new voters’ list. He is in essence advocating the disenfranchisement of Guyanese who are resident abroad to be removed from the list. This could only be done through a constitutional amendment. The High Court has already ruled on this matter.,
Jeffrey fails to admit that’ it is this same list that they embraced when they won a Parliamentary majority in 2011 and again in 2015. Additionally this was the same list list they used for LGE 2016 and LGE 2018 when they wielded state power. Now that they lost, they are blaming the list.
It was not the list that caused their loss but rather their incompetence, poor vision, and corruption. The existing voters’ list is just used as a pretext for their poor performance. They can’t rig elections anymore. Still they tried in 2020 when they were caught in the full glare of the world. Even if there is a new voters’ list, they would not win. Since they have competition in the electoral system beginning 1992 their chances of winning state power have diminished, but they got a break in 2015 due to PPPC’s political complacency.
The APNU must address their incompetence and jaundiced vision for the country’s development. They had 33 years of governance and only brought the country into economic chaos and distress. The PPPC had to clean up their mess in 1992,and again in 2020.
Why should there be shared governance? The political landscape is highly competitive, no ethnic group has a majority. To win an election a political party must be multi racial and attract voters from all groups. The APNU’s political mobilization is restricted mainly to one group. What they need is not a radical overhaul of the voters list but rather a fundamental restructure of their party operations and its vision.
Yours truly,
Dr Singh