‘…the Constitution is clear – a president is entitled to two terms in office’
The PPP yesterday said that it views the campaign to remove the term limit for the President to be mischievous and designed to create confusion and division among the people.
And in distancing the party from the campaign, the PPP also noted the comments of party executive Reepu Daman Persaud at the recent Diwali celebrations in relation to the same subject but stressed that “he was not mandated to speak on behalf of the party on this issue and he was not doing so,” the party stated in a news release.
The PPP said it had noted a campaign by unidentified persons who are requesting an amendment to the Constitution to remove the term limit for a President of the Republic of Guyana but pointed out that the Constitution is clear – a president is entitled to two terms in office.
The party also observed that the proposal for term limits was first made in 1996 to a Special Committee on Constitutional Reform and it was again made in 1999 to the Constitutional Reform Commission and the PPP on both occasions had supported the proposal.
In addition President Bharrat Jagdeo has stated publicly on several occasions in and out of Guyana that he has no interest in a third term, the release added.
Meanwhile, a group calling itself the Guyanese Coalition For Jagdeo Third Term (GCFJTT) has been campaigning for a third term for President Jagdeo by distributing flyers and buttons amid growing public concerns that a move may be afoot to amend the constitution to remove term limits.
Suggestions that the PPP may have been behind this had been refuted earlier by its General Secretary Donald Ramotar.
He had opined that “it may be somebody trying to be mischievous since the President has repeatedly stated his position on the matter.”
Some political parties clearly do not believe the President and have been campaigning against his running for a third time.
The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) recently said that it hoped that the PPP/Civic would not engage in any “adventurist” steps to subvert term limits.
And in July, Alliance For Change Leader Raphael Trotman said that his party would resist any effort to extend the term limit for Jagdeo.
