“A delay tactic” is what the governing People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has labelled a call made by the main Parliamentary Opposition for a review of the contentious March 2020 polls.
Several opposition members, including Guyana Elections Commissioner (GECOM), Vincent Alexander, have called for a comprehensive review of the five-month-long electoral process that has since become known as the “longest election in Guyana’s history”. They contend that such an assessment is critical before any attempt is made to reform electoral laws.
But the government is well on its way to making changes to the Representation of the People Act (ROPA) to stave off electoral fraud. The administration has argued that the events that unfolded from March to August 2020 must never again reoccur. Indeed, those elections have been characterised by back-to-back litigation, unruly protest demonstrations and the entanglement of top electoral officers in allegations of fraud and misconduct. At least four persons have already been hauled before the courts to answer charges relative to their conduct during the elections. Some of the proposed changes to the law include life imprisonment and multimillion-dollars fines for those found guilty of attempting to thwart the will of the electorate.
The PPP/C in a press release earlier today claimed that the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) is seemingly not interested in electoral reform. It said that the coalition party has failed, over the past six months, to participate in the national process to amend the laws.
“Firstly, the call from the Coalition camp for a comprehensive review of what took place in March 2020 before electoral reforms are addressed is nothing but a delay tactic. Recall that every report from the international Election Observer Missions, including the CARICOM team, detailed what took place at the March 2020 Elections – every Guyanese is aware of what took
place during the March 2020 electoral process, civil society is aware, the international community is aware. It would seem that the only ignorant party, by their own claim, is the PNCR/APNU/AFC,” the PPP/C said.
The ruling party added that the PNCR-led APNU+AFC Coalition is the “only party with an interest in keeping our electoral laws vague and ambiguous, hence the delay tactics. Also, in a duplicitous move, the Coalition claims that time is of the essence and electoral reform must be addressed to prevent a postponement of Local Government Elections. However, the only group contributing to the delay is the Coalition”.
