Granger should tell us what happened to the ballot boxes

SAFDAR HUSSAIN: THERE is much talk about the attributes, qualities and suitability of the presidential candidates running for office in the forthcoming general elections. Some citizens are advocating Town Hall-type meetings, etc., but not all citizens can attend such meetings and a great responsibility will fall on the press to accurately report all that would be said. The reports must not reflect the views and sentiments of the reporters who wish to be called journalists. Views and comments must be reserved for commentaries, editorials, etc. The populace would like to hear what would be said by the participants in order for them to form opinions of their own. The correspondents and others, then, by their articles or reports should try to address their own points of view, to win over the recipients of the candidates’ addresses. I shall urge also that the candidates must be honest in their presentations and so not seek to incite or influence the citizenry with false statements and promises.
Let us take for instance presidential candidate Khemraj Ramjattan of the AFC. He promises to make two seats in Guyana’s Parliament available for members of the diaspora. If he were not a lawyer he may be excused for that. But he ought to know that certain conditions apply to those who may be selected to sit in our Parliament. The first requirement is for that person to be registered as a voter in Guyana. Secondly, his name must appear in the list of candidates from which the members will be selected. The seats he will offer to the diaspora cannot be rotated to others. Will they give up their overseas citizenship and come to live in Guyana or will they be shunting from country to country?
Secondly, I see him telling voters of Cane Grove who are suffering a dust nuisance that he will go to the Court for contempt proceedings. Is there a basis for him to get contempt proceedings for example, an Order of Court being disobeyed by someone? Is he honest in his representation to the people who are suffering, or God forbid, he does not know better. For a few votes, is he going to sell his reputation and soul for a mess of pottage?
But then, PNC Presidential candidate David Granger is a different kettle of fish. He is touted as an academic, a brilliant planner and schemer, a historian, a disciplinarian, a family man, etc. etc. When we see such credentials being advanced the inevitable conclusion is that here is an honest man. How intellectually honest do we find David Granger? To begin with the entire world knows that the PNC had rigged national elections in Guyana over the years, the last one being in 1985 which has put to shame the results of those elections before. We cannot forget also the efforts to get things right for 1990 elections when then President Hoyte used that as an excuse and adjourned the elections for two years and gave himself two additional years as President.
Our intellectual Granger wrote in his book “The New Road – A short history of the Guyana Defence Force 1966-1976”, that national elections were scheduled for July 1973 and the GDF was called in to aid the civil powers and prevent a breakdown of law and order that was planned by the gangsters. Those gangsters according to him were persons recruited by the PPP. Nowhere in the book did he say what the soldiers did with the ballot boxes which they collected at the several polling stations. Everyone knew that the ballot boxes which they collected were taken to the GDF Headquarters at Camp Ayangana in Thomas Lands, Georgetown where the ‘counting’ of the ballots took place. All saw the Camp on ‘mourning’ when black drapes were put over all the windows of the building there. Granger must have known of these things as he was the strategist of the army. He still has time to tell us what took place at the Camp when the ballot boxes were taken there. Read more...................