Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo earlier today (Friday) met with diplomats from the major Western missions in Guyana to discuss the recent passage of the No-Confidence motion which saw the Coalition government being toppled.
During the one-hour long meeting, which was held at Jagdeo’s Church Street office, the Opposition Leader reportedly raised concerns about the actions of Government. Yesterday, Jagdeo had called for the APNU+AFC administration to immediately resign in accordance with the Constitution, saying that Government is operating as though nothing happened.
“The Government should resign,” said Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo bluntly on Thursday as he called for the Administration to abide by the Constitution during a media engagement outside Freedom House on Thursday following a meeting with the Party’s Executive Committee.
“This government has lost a no-confidence motion; the Constitution has provided the clear prescription [that] you resign on losing it. They should’ve resigned by now … [I’m calling on Government] to resign now; that is what [Article] 106 (6) is – it didn’t say “may” resign, it said “shall” resign,” Jagdeo told reporters.
Article 106 (6) states explicitly: “The Cabinet including the President shall resign if the Government is defeated by the vote of a majority of all the elected members of the National Assembly on a vote of confidence.”
Jagdeo had reiterated that he was ready to have these discussions with the Head of State. However, while Government had assured a meeting would be held between President Granger and the Opposition Leader, this was not likely until the President returns from Cuba.
“I’m prepared to meet now, [but] the President is not here … and I don’t want to be callous, so I’ll have to wait until he gets back. [But] they are just going around managing as though nothing has happened in this country. What happened last week is that the Government fell, the Government fell on a no-confidence motion,” Jagdeo asserted.
Nevertheless, the Opposition Leader told reporters that today’s meeting with diplomats from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom as well as the European Union, went well.
