…slams media report as fake news
Opposition Leader, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday slammed reports in the media that “power sharing” was proposed to the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) with the APNU-AFC Government back in 2015.
The reports surfaced following a press conference with President David Granger last week, where he indicated that “soon after we got into office, there was a proposal that we meet and discuss what I call inclusionary democracy but there is no proposal on the table for power sharing, whatever that means.”
However, on Thursday during his weekly press conference, Jagdeo said “let me make this clear, we have never requested power sharing because some people thought we did…Now, I think the President is quite clear. He never offered power sharing and we are not meeting to discuss that so I was surprised to see, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised, when Newsroom, which is from the E-networks Group, suddenly included, and this is becoming a pattern now of fake news, included that there was a proposal at the beginning to the People’s Progressive Party for power sharing.”
The Opposition Leader placed emphasis on his explanation saying that the President “wants this to be about an idea sharing proposal. Not a power sharing proposal so we must meet to share ideas.”
“I just want to make it clear to people out there who may be talking about power sharing and somehow that the PPP is holding this up…and that we seem to be the stumbling block to this idea,” he said.
Back in May 2015, the PPP sought to make it clear to the Carter Centre observation team that it will not be forced into any power sharing arrangement as a result of post elections violence or unrest.
This issue was raised on May 10, 2015, during a meeting between PPP/C Presidential Candidate, Donald Ramotar, former President Jagdeo and former US President, Jimmy Carter shortly before he departed Guyana for Atlanta, citing health concerns.
A source familiar with the meeting told INews at that time, that the PPP/C made it clear that it will not be “trapped” into an arrangement like the Herdmanston Accord which was established in January 1998 after the 1997 general and regional elections sparked off numerous demonstrations which degenerated into violence and civil disturbance.
