Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 07, 2014 News
“… I did not anticipate that we would have had a one-seat minority in Parliament and that created political uncertainty… within what we call the politics of the country.”- President Ramotar
By Abena Rockcliffe
Opposition Leader, David Granger has expressed disappointment that President Donald Ramotar could have even
considered denying the Guyanese people their democratic and constitutional rights just to assure political comfort.
Granger, Leader of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), said that this sort of behaviour from the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) administration is unacceptable and can no longer be tolerated.
Granger said that President Ramotar acknowledged that he promised in the PPP 2011 election manifesto ¯ that, once his party returned to office, Local Government Elections would be held within the first year. He admittedly failed to fulfill that promise.
According to reports, Ramotar, addressing his supporters in Brooklyn, New York at a town hall-style meeting, organized by the PPP’s Association of Concerned Guyanese, admitted reneging on his promise and sought to justify him doing so.
“I did not anticipate that we would have had a one-seat minority in Parliament and that created political uncertainty…within what we call the politics of the country.”
Granger told Kaieteur News yesterday that Ramotar’s comments need no interpretation. They shout clearly that the “President is fully prepared to put convenience ahead of the Constitution.”
Granger said that in all consideration of the political atmosphere in Guyana, it is inconvenient for Ramotar to comply with the Constitution, “but this is totally unacceptable; the Constitution takes priority over convenience.”
Granger said that the President has to realize that his preference takes back seat when it comes to the constitutional rights of the Guyanese people.
The political leader emphasized that the entire purpose of having Local Government Election is to provide a platform for inclusionary democracy; but he said that Ramotar’s actions reflect an evasion of such.
“It should not be a win or lose case; regardless of a particular Party’s standing, the people should be allowed to run their own affairs…what the President is doing reflects callousness and a brazen denial of democracy,” said Granger.
Granger also noted that the President still hasn’t set a date to meet with him as promised. However, the Opposition Leader no longer seems eager to meet with the Head-of-State either.
He said, “We indicated our preparedness to meet with him but we don’t need to meet with him for him to announce the date for Local Government Election.”
Recently, President Ramotar and Granger have been exchanging letters in the press about Local Government Elections.
The letters exchange started when Granger sent Ramotar a letter urging him to, by September 15, set a date for the holding of Local Government Elections or suffer the consequences. The consequences outlined by Granger included him seeking support from the international community on the issue.
Granger, in his letter, sought to “remind” President Ramotar that it is his constitutional obligation to hold Local Government Election.
But the President did not take Granger’s ultimatum too seriously. Instead of setting the date, the President responded to Granger’s letter saying that it was quite confusing. The President asked Granger to explain his position he also told Granger that there was no need to “remind” him of his constitutional obligations.
But when Granger ignored that letter Ramotar sent him and begun country wide protest actions, Ramotar wrote him again; this time saying that he was prepared to meet with him to sort things out.
Ramotar wrote this final letter just before he left for the United States of America and said that he would have met with Granger upon his return. However, even though Ramotar has returned to Guyana for some time now, he is still to set a date for the meeting.
While the President was still in New York, he told Guyanese residing there that General and Local Government Elections cannot be held simultaneously and said that it is imperative that Granger be clear on which of the polls he wants.
But no call was made for elections to be simultaneously held. The Alliance For Change (AFC) tabled a No-Confidence Motion that once passed will force the government to resign and President Ramotar will have to call General Elections within three months.
APNU has given all assurance that it will support the AFC motion but made clear that the coalition’s priority is to have Local Government Elections be held as soon as possible.
Kaieteur News understands that Local Government Elections and General Elections can be held in close proximity. However, the law says that if there is a clash, General Elections takes precedence and Local Government Elections can be held three months after.
Guyanese have not been able to vote in Local Government Elections in just about 20 years. The last elections were held in 1994.
Using their combined one-seat majority in the National Assembly, APNU and AFC in February approved an amendment to the Local Authorities (Amendment) (Elections) Bill 2014, even when the government argued against it.
That piece of amendment directed that Local Government Elections be held on or before August 1, 2014.
President Ramotar, in May, wrote Speaker of the National Assembly, Raphael Trotman, informing that he was withholding his assent because the Guyana Elections Commission had declared that it is impractical to hold local government elections” by that date.
President Ramotar had also dismissed calls by the international community to hold elections. Former United States Ambassador to Guyana Brent Hardt was one who made such a call. This resulted in widely publicized fallout between government and Ambassador Hardt.
The PPP/C, when it enjoyed a majority in the National Assembly, passed amendments for 12 consecutive years, from 1997, to defer the holding of local government elections.
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