[www.inewsguyana.com] – The United Kingdom’s Foreign Office Minister, Tobias Ellwood, has now issued a call for the “earliest possible resumption of Parliament as required by Guyana’s Constitution and the Commonwealth Charter.”
President Donald Ramotar confirmed the Opposition’s worst fears on November 10, 2014 when he prorogued Parliament, to avoid the Opposition sponsored No Confidence Motion which was brought to the House by the Alliance For Change (AFC) and supported by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).
In a media release issued today, Thursday January 08 from the British High Commission in Georgetown, Mr. Ellwood said, “The UK Government views with concern the continued prorogation of Parliament by His Excellency President Ramotar and calls for its earliest possible resumption. Parliament is required by Guyana’s Constitution and the Commonwealth Charter; it provides the necessary checks and balances and enables citizens’ voices to be heard the suspension of Parliament therefore means that an essential element of a functioning democracy has been put on hold.
According to the release, Ellwood also expressed concerns regarding the People’s Progressive Party’s failure to call Local Government Elections (LGE).
“We also continue to have concerns that there have been no local elections for over 20 years, which is also contrary to the democratic principles of the Commonwealth Charter and Guyana’s own Constitution.”
Stakeholders have also been called upon to intervene further to bring an end to the current impasse.
“The UK calls on all stakeholders to seek solutions to the political and socio-economic challenges facing Guyana so that the country can develop in a fair, democratic and equitable way.”
Meanwhile, President Ramotar has already revealed his intention not to resume Parliament and is expected to announce a date for holding of general and regional elections sometime soon.
massa feeling guilty about slavery…but not in massa country..
The PPP/C Government, of which I am a supporter, should never have allowed the “LGE fiasco” to reach to this stage. If one examines the process,which included reforms and legislative changes, of holding LGE since the last one was held in 1994 you would see that both the opposition and the Government are culpable. Regardless of what the opposition did, the government should not have allowed LGE to drag on for this long because after 20 years of no LGE the call and shouts by the opposition and others like Brent Hardt and Tobias Ellwood are valid. As the ruling party the blame will unfortunately fall on this government. This is the reality.
It is known that the opposition played political games with the new LGE legislation. The government took this matter too lightly not realizing it would come to such an unsatisfactory stage where it now a potential blow back to all the good work they did in the local constituencies. It is the President’s prerogative to set an election date but at this stage of the game when the date for General elections is finally set I can already guess some of the headlines. One may read “President agreed to set early election date after calls from local and foreign sources”. The PPP is a working class party and its government should’ve made all efforts to uphold grassroots democracy and not only focus on General Elections. It should’ve responded to the opposition’s “pussyfooting antics” with a tougher and smarter strategy.
I never paid any heed to Brent Hardt and his arrogance together with his cronies such as “Blue Caps” etc etc who always shout for LGE. Guyana is a member of the Commonwealth and must take note when a Minister from the United Kingdom’s Foreign Office makes a comment. If one listens carefully to Mr Andrew Ayre (British High Commissioner) when he commented on this issue, he actually issued a veiled threat of isolation for Guyana from the Commonwealth. This is how it starts: first a comment then action followed by interference/ meddling and it continues to spiral.
When the PPP/C government is returned to power this year I call on HE President Donald Ramotar to set a date for LGE very soon thereafter.