Jagdeo says Granger will see protests until election date named

Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo has declared that President David Granger will be met by protests everywhere he goes “until he names an election date.”

‘We will keep this up until he names a date and we hope the date is in February (next year) itself,” Jagdeo told a press conference yesterday while also declaring that “you can’t trust a President who doesn’t respect the constitution.”

His declaration followed a protest by members of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) which saw a little more than 100 persons attempt to block Granger’s entrance to the Pegasus Hotel where he delivered the feature address at a luncheon held by the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA). One hour before the luncheon, Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Claudette Singh had informed Granger that the commission would be ready to conduct elections by the end of February 2020. Singh’s letter which Granger has repeatedly said he was waiting on was delivered one day after the September 18 deadline for elections implied by the Caribbean Court of Justice’s June 18 ruling. The passage of this deadline has according to observers placed the current administration in breach of the constitution.

Due to the protest, Granger was forced to enter the hotel via a back entrance, a situation which Jagdeo hopes to make the norm.

“We will target Granger. We will target the person acting illegally so Granger wherever he shows up, wherever he goes will be met with protest and disruptions that will say to him we are not going to tolerate a dictatorship in this country. You have to comply with the constitution of this country,” he stressed.

Jagdeo who as President regularly had protests quelled by police action declared that his party will not tolerate any attempt to curtail their right to protest.

“They must be respectful of the right of the people of this country to peacefully protest. If they violate that balance then they will get on our wrong side,” he stated.

He further noted that while his party is surprised and disappointed that elections will not be held this year they will use the extra months to educate Guyanese about the transgressions of government.

“We are extremely disappointed with the date but we are happy that the excuse has been taken from the caretaker President so he no longer can blame GECOM for staying in office illegally. …We are disappointed but we are patient,” he declared arguing that the extended timeline means more international observers are likely to be present and more local observers will be accredited.

His disappointment has however not curbed his party’s faith in the newly appointed GECOM chair retired Justice Claudette Singh though he is suspicious of the secretariat.

“I have great faith in the fairness and impartiality of the chair but she is surrounded by a secretariat and she has to rely on a secretariat that is at best unreliable but I think they are more sinister than unreliable. They are deliberately …raising concerns that are extraneous and feeding her extended timelines and she then has a commission where three of the members don’t want any timeline. Their entire purpose so far has been to frustrate the process so I sympathize with that but I expected the she would’ve remained faithful to what she said to the two parties,” Jagdeo said.

The chair had said in separate meetings with APNU+AFC and the PPP that she was working towards elections before the end of the year.