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The Alliance For Change (AFC) will not be comfortable with the Preliminary Voters' List (PVL) until the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) can say what the claims and objections process has achieved, including expunging the names of the deceased and of persons not residing permanently in Guyana.
GECOM needs also to say how the PVL would be verified to the satisfaction and comfort levels of all political parties, AFC Chairman and presidential candidate Raphael Trotman told Stabroek News in a telephone interview on Friday.
Trotman said GECOM and other stakeholders need to ensure that the PVL meets international standards.
The upcoming general elections, he said, "are not a club elections and the process by whichever party is elected to run the government should stand the scrutiny of Guya-nese as well as the international community. So where do we stand? We believe that the list should be sanitised, that there should be verification."
Asked how the party felt about house-to-house verification, which is currently a bone of contention between the PPP/C and the PNCR, Trotman said that as one of the parties contesting the upcoming elections, the AFC wants the list to be as sanitized as it could ever be, to meet "...our comfort and... the comfort levels of all the contesting parties and other stakeholders."
The AFC believes GECOM needs to say to the nation how the list would be verified to the satisfaction of all. "We will not go into a position of comfort or satisfaction until we know, for example, what is happening with the fingerprinting exercise being done by the Jamaican electoral office."
Stating that GECOM needs to allay the fears and concerns of everyone at this stage, he said the AFC could not say whether it was satisfied with elections preparations until it knows what safeguards were in place to ensure "one person, one vote" on polling day.
The party, he said, was aware of the stuffing of ballot boxes and what could happen if the names of the dead or those who live outside Guyana permanently remain on the Official List of Electors (OLE).
Asked about the party's silence on the issue of the house-to-house verification, Trotman said the AFC did not subscribe to the view that it must enter into destructive politics characterised by the "shouting matches" mainly between the PPP/C and the PNCR.
In a letter to this newspaper, G Nurse had said the party's silence on certain issues was a sign of weakness and deviousness in competitive politics. But Trotman said the AFC had no intention of becoming involved in "a big shouting match in which no one gets heard." Rather, he said, the AFC would continue to pick the issues on which it felt statements should be made and do so at the appropriate time.
In addition, he said the AFC's opinion is that there was no longer anything like competitive politics in Guyana. "We have destructive politics, where you go out not to compete based on issues or personalities. You are literally sent out on the front line to deliberately destroy the leadership and the ranks of the other camp. So the practice of politics in Guyana does not fit the standard mode of competitive politics where the more deserving or best candidate wins based on issues and a good programme," he said.
Claiming G. Nurse was a pen name of a very senior official of a political party, whom he knows, Trotman said the letter was meant to appear to come from an impartial onlooker.
He said the shouting match between the PPP/C and the PNCR was quite normal and it took place every five years. "Those who could remember would recall when Joseph Hamilton was skilfully able to have thousands of names removed from the list. The PPP/C made the same counter arguments, so this is not new. It is part of the cut and thrust of elections preparations in Guyana."
Public meetings
Asked about public open-air meetings, Trotman said once the campaign season was official, the AFC intended to hold public meetings, but he was not sure about "whether we would hold mass rallies."
The AFC anticipates a difference in this election campaign and that there might be less emphasis on public meetings given the blanket of fear that exists with regard to crime. "Many people may not be persuaded to come out for public meetings that go late into the night but that does not say that they are not with you," he added.
He said the AFC anticipates that parties may have to tailor their campaigns to deal with the issue of insecurity, especially where persons are threatened or are afraid to come out on their own.
But the AFC has already begun holding public outdoor meetings and has held one in at Port Kaituma in Region One (Barima/Waini) where several hundred people attended, he said.
The traditional politicking would continue in bottom houses and public indoor meetings. In preparation for the outdoors, Trotman said, overseas supporters have donated public address systems, generators and lighting systems.
Noting the support that the AFC has been receiving countrywide and overseas, Trot-man said that the party was due to open branch offices at the end of this month at Golden Grove on the East Coast Demerara; Dundee, Mahaicony; D'Edward, West Coast Berbice and Leonora, West Coast Demerara.
Donations in cash and kind had been "coming in" from local and overseas-based supporters, Trotman said, though he could not give a total figure, as he did not have it available at the time of the interview. He said the donations were helping to meet the heavy administrative expenses of maintaining ten offices and staff. "So we have been getting enough to meet our operational expenses," he said.
Stating that the AFC's campaign was proceeding according to its own deliberate judgment and based on advice from its campaign strategists and others, Trotman said that the AFC was waiting on GECOM to signal exactly when elections would be held.
Coming as the underdog in the elections, he said, it would be unwise not to be in a state of readiness. "We just hope that when the elections are finally announced that we can all go at it as competitors and respect each other's positions and respect the outcome as well. If there is to be a delay, we would deal with that then, but as of now we are preparing for elections to be held in September," he said.
On talks with other political parties and on public opinion, which appears to favour an AFC/GAP alliance, Trotman said at present there are no official talks, but the AFC has not closed the doors to other opposition political parties.
Noting an opinion piece which said that the third force ideology is still kicking and in effect, he said the AFC's policy is to treat all of the third parties as allies, equals and as friends in the field and on the campaign trail even if there is no official or formalised coming together.
On the number of political parties that would contest the elections, Trotman said he felt the 30-something parties would eventually whittle down to about 12. And while he refrained from commenting on how the other parties would fare, he was confident that the AFC would make an impact.
Icons
Asked how he felt about the current issue of the controversial tapes which purport to implicate Commissioner of Police Winston Felix in illegal actions, Trotman said it was "of course being politicised because we are in the political season. As I said, we are no longer in competitive politics but in destructive politics. So each group or the major parties have icons that they have to preserve and protect. Any attempt to knock any of the icons off the pedestal is defended, and so you are in a constant battle to gain prominence and to deny prominence."
And with regard to the government trying to investigate or interdict the Police Commissioner, Trotman said that without the voices on the tape being authenticated that was tantamount to putting the cart before the horse. All those who made great mileage over what was said would not be able to use it as evidence in keeping with law and procedure, he said.
With regard to Roger Khan, he said his arrest would bring an end to the daily exchange of statements, counterstatements and accusations in the media. "It was an unhealthy situation of having this conversation going on in the press every day. I didn't feel that it helped the country's image or that it augured well for the national security situation. I read the papers with interest on Friday morning about his arrest and I am surprised at the ease and simplicity in the way he was apprehended in another country."
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