We have been accustomed to the idea of casting our ballots for the party of our choice to become the government and the losing party or parties form the opposition.

I say the 'idea' of casting our ballots, as for many years these were not valid because of the rigging of elections and the outcomes of these did not reflect the will of the people as have been locally and internationally certified.

When we voted in the last elections neither the supporters of the PPP/Civic or the PNC/Reform or of any other party voted for shared governance.

Therefore, it is my view and perhaps that of many others that the electorate will have to decide in a genuine referendum if we want a change in the system of governance.

I say 'genuine' referendum because the last one we had in 1978 was massively rigged as most people including PNC supporters stayed away and did not vote in spite of the large number of votes announced as supporting the government.

My ballot was cast but not by me, or by anyone authorised by me. I had gone to the St Ambrose School polling place and I was told by one of the clerks that I had already voted. I took out from my wallet my National ID Card and showed the Clerk the number 183638 who showed me her list and the name and number were neatly ticked off.

There were only Policemen and clerks at the Polling Station and the incident was witnessed by a relative, a long-time staunch supporter of the PNC.

We visited several other Polling Stations in Georgetown and the situation was the same - only Policeman and clerks - as he observed, "the people had boycotted the Referendum". The people had indeed stayed away, but the already decided results were announced which bore no relation to reality.

I later that day carried out a test by phoning a PNC official or representative for the Referendum - a friend of mine who is still around and probably listening to this broadcast.

I told him that as Executive Officer for the firm where I worked, part of my duty was to apply for allocations of Foreign Currency at the Bank of Guyana and they were also one of the many agencies, which had to approve, at that time, the passing of Import Licences. If my ballot was cast for the opposition party at the time, it was my view that our allocations and approvals could have been affected.

The official told me, after a lengthy hesitation "that if I went to vote and my ballot was already cast, it would have been cast for the right party." Unquote. He would have known.

If we have shared governance after a genuine referendum, how would it work? Whose Party Manifesto would be implemented? Which party in a shared-governance arrangement would take the blame for failures or wrong decisions and who would take credit for successes?

Wouldn't parties lose the impetus to perform? If you win, you win, if you lose, you win.

So why strive to do the best you can, when you are sure to have seats in Government anyway, regardless of how you perform.

It is my view that we would in effect have a One-Party State and elections would be irrelevant and a thing of the past. What would be the purpose of any elections?