[lac-discuss-en] LACRALO Preference Vote - NomCom Delegate

[Carlton Samuels]

Dear Carlos Vera:
I hope I'm not being misled by my poor Spanish language skills.  If this is
the case, my humble apologies.  But from my translation of your original
input, it seems that while you acknowledged the short time allowed for a
quorate vote, you concluded that any election from the vote remains valid.
With respect, we will agree to disagree.  And on principle.

I've seen several of our colleagues who say they wished to vote and for one
or other reason, were disenfranchised.  In my part of the world where the
democratic tradition is deep-rooted, a valid election is one that allows all
those qualified and wishing to vote to do so without imposition of duress of
any kind. Closing a poll early is a well-know practice used to
disenfranchise voters.  So long as I caucus with LACRALO, I will be opposed
and we must have none of that.

More fundamentally, the evidence abounds that the broad LACRALO membership
remains puzzled by elements of our democratic governance and this is of
grave concern to me.  We lack a common understanding of democratic
governance, the meaning of representation in this context and why we elect
representatives to purpose.  It is even more challenging when the virtual
world interposes itself on us.  I confess that despite powerful and
insistent arguments at Buenos Aires in the beginning of LACRALO, I was
against any mechanism that protected and preserved the Caribbean's distinct
cultural antecedents and rights to effective representation. I am humbled by
the history, including recent history, and now admit I was wrong then and
thereby connived at error.

I am now convinced that the differences between Caribbean views on
democracy, governance and representation is too wide a gulf to bridge and
thus renders LACRALO dysfunctional and inimical to our interests.  There
must be a new arrangement for continued worthwhile engagement.

Carlton Samuels