The PNCR today accused the PPP/C government of helming a plan to stay in office, a charge that the ruling party and the government have previously strenuously denied.
At a press conference today, the PNCR said “The People’s National Congress Reform puts President (Bharrat) Jagdeo and the PPP/C on notice that their sinister plan to remain in office beyond the Constitutional deadline will not succeed. Since September 2010, the PNCR had been acutely aware of the efforts by President Jagdeo to find a way of remaining in Office beyond his Constitutional mandate.”
The party further alleged, ”First he sought three legal opinions on how this objective could be attained. All the legal advice which he has obtained and which the PNCR has seen have advised that this is neither legally nor constitutionally possible. The last opinion advised that unless there is a National emergency there is no way of delaying the General and Regional Elections. More details were later sought on how that emergency could be created. The warped reasoning of the President and his men was that the elections were delayed in 1990 for two years and the PPP/C period in Office after the 1997 elections was cut short by one year. Consequently, the PPP/C should use all means at its disposal to regain this period under President Jagdeo since all efforts to achieve a third term in office have gained no support either within the PPP hierarchy or the wider society.”
The party argued that it is in this context that recent charges against several Guyanese and the appointment of the Chairman of the Elections Commission, Dr Steve Surujbally as Chairman of the new Guyana Livestock Development Authority must be seen.
In this context, it also cited the attempts to burn down the Enterprise Government school, the recent explosions and the “unconscionable actions” of dismantling the stalls around Stabroek Market, thus placing into jeopardy the livelihood of over four hundred Guyanese citizens struggling to eke out an existence in difficult circumstances.
For at least two years now there have been suggestions that President Jagdeo had been considering options for a third term or at least an extension of the present term. President Jagdeo has repeatedly denied these suggestions.
In July, 2010 President Jagdeo refuted reports that he was planning to run for a third term as head-of-state of Guyana.
Jagdeo made the denial while referring to an article in that week’s edition of Stabroek News, which he said quoted sources from a recent Freedom House meeting. “I have made it clear that that is not true. I am not interested. I am not going anywhere for a third term,” he said, addressing a large gathering of residents of Linden at a return visit at the Watooka Club.
In October, 2009, the PPP said that it viewed the campaign by a group 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 that year 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 were 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.
A group calling itself the Guyanese Coalition For Jagdeo Third Term (GCFJTT) had been campaigning for a third term for President Jagdeo by distributing flyers and buttons. 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.”
The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) had said then that it hoped that the PPP/Civic would not engage in any “adventurist” steps to subvert term limits.
Then Alliance For Change Leader Raphael Trotman had said that his party would resist any effort to extend the term limit for Jagdeo.
