Projecting a loss ahead of elections is a less than subtle submission to impending defeat.
Calling for what has decidedly been stated as unfeasible for the 2025 General Election is political noise.
It would have been seen as more of an Opposition effort if a studied rebuttal to the European Union’s Final Report, dated since June 2023, had been presented.
Similarly, and inclusive of Publication citing risks and cost of $20 million for biometric implementation, it would have been appropriate for the Opposition to challenge the findings by Justice Claudette Singh of bio metrics being unconstitutional…especially since Constitutional Amendments are made by one Party and its supporting Caucus, amounting to the unwavering 34 of the 65 votes to be cast…all without required contribution from the constitutionally elected Opposition.
Free and Fair elections are mandates of a Democracy which exists only when constitutional elements satisfy their roles vigorously and persistently; both of which are consistently necessary and in service to the electorate…not Party.
That the generally accepted indices – measurements that the global community uses to determine the societal health of a population –paint an ailing picture of Guyana in several critical areas, one of which is its ‘fair election’ which comes in at .42 on a scale of 0-1, making it fall short of the halfway mark- is more than enough reason to call for free and fair elections.
Languishing at the lower end of the competitive scale for years, testament to the country’s incapacity to compete in the global economy, is yet another vital reason to seek governing change.
The democracy that resident western diplomats export, incentivized by aid, teaches that free and fair and trusted elections are at the core of healthy democracies.
So, politicians and the electorate alike, have every right to demand an electoral system that bars no eligible voter from the polls or institutes prohibitive measures in the short term that would, by design or demand, deny a person the right to vote.
This, conversely, makes the continuous call for voting biometrics – a system with an infrastructure which requires an expansive data base of fingerprints and retina recognition, as added authentication to birth and housing records- a distraction that is dishonest.
It is calculatedly inflammatory with the express purpose of assigning blame for a loss at the polls.
The preceding, of course, is all our opinion.
And we have formed it based on the existence of documentation that could have created a campaign, constructed on reported data that directly affects the economic lack and the absence of social provision, for the majority of residents in Guyana.
What campaign you ask? We, too, are unsure.
But the International Foundation for Electoral Systems database shows a November occurrence. And, as of April, we’ve heard no campaign messaging from an Opposition which, of necessity, has to reach beyond its base, primarily to demonstrate its promise to lead all Guyanese, irrespective of Party affiliation.
The ongoing police shootings of black men remain an abhorrence that needs to be called out all day and every time but never at the expense of forgetting that overall outreach is the destination to base -building.
This does not down play the recorded racism that remains a prominent metric of Guyana’s Statistic profile.
Equally as under reported, is Census data- last official copy 2012 published 2016.
There’s a country Human Rights visit, too, that met with Ruling Party members only, excluding Opposition Participation.
And there’s, also, the sharing of a grossly outdated economic base to international data banks to calculate GDP and assert income distribution which is synthetized to measure income equality…and offer a false level of wall that is unequal.
These are issues that directly impact socio-political well being.
These are issues that should be messaged to the electorate in political speak. These are the platforms that confine the larger portion of the population and to USD 5.50 per day to provide a daily living. These are tidbits of political information that would advise and elevate citizen participation well beyond the format and content of current discussions.
But focusing on the sensation of the day, as necessary and pertinent as it is, is the easier task for politicians with narrow minds and shallow thinking.
Grievance and Disenfranchisement are palpable sentiments within an electorate.
But stoking them without offering a solution is cheap politicking… organized noise-making that incenses discontent…which shouldn’t be a goal unto itself. Politicizing unhappiness has extended ramifications, not limited to robbery which engenders police killings.
What are the promises of a new leadership, we wonder?
We are definitely in support of increased minimum wage and the elevated starting salary for teachers.
We remain subscribers to the thinking that this is the profession that molds the most important element of a nation – Human Resources.
Rewarding teachers’ commitment to this national responsibility by deciding how much they should be paid because of intermittent holidays, is to miss the entire point, as much as it insults their efforts.
And the arbitrary promise of money for ‘everyone’ is not a campaign message founded in socio- economic analysis.
One hint is that extra money gets spent on the goods and services of the people who already take the money of the people with lesser means. Political messaging can be promises but they test integrity.
And this takes us back to the consistent clamor for bio metrics which is impossible at this fifty ninth minute.
But it’s easier than crafting a message that has real content across all of the facets that comprise society.
As we said earlier, the late call for biometrics is the placeholder for a loss.
And though we’re not ‘see-far’ folk, we’d certainly be delighted by an unforeseeable surprise.
