Should PPP presidential candidate Donald Ramotar win office there are unlikely to be any sweeping changes to the country’s constitution but advice may be sought on altering the immunity from prosecution afforded to presidents.
Speaking during a press briefing yesterday morning at Freedom House, Ramotar, while responding to a question regarding changes to the constitution he would implement, said he did not have a general problem with the existing constitution.
“Guyana has had its executive presidency since 1980. The one big problem that the PPP had with the executive presidency with the 1980 constitution and which we have been on record with that issue from the very moment that the 1980 constitution was promulgated was that there was one power that the President had that we don’t think that any president should have had. And that is the power to prorogue parliament even if the president is being under investigation,” Ramotar said. He said that was always the party’s position. He said that a promise was made to remove this clause from the constitution and this had been done.
“There is a lot of misconception about the constitution,” Ramotar said adding that substantial amounts of money had been spent on reviewing the 1980 constitution. He said that the reviewed constitution was unanimously passed by the National Assembly in 2001. “I don’t think we have a bad constitution. I don’t think our constitution is a bad constitution at all. I think our constitution is probably superior to many constitutions in the world,” he said. He said too that the public and the parliament had indicated the same by their support of the constitution.
Speaking about the powers of the president under the constitution, Ramotar contended that Guyana’s constitution did not afford the president more powers than those in other countries. “I can assure you that if you take things in a general sense, of course you could find specifics here and there in different constitutions, but in a general sense, the President of the Republic of Guyana does not have more powers than any of the other presidents, in a general way, in the world,” he said.
Asked specifically about the immunity of the president, Ramotar said that he would probably seek advice on it. “The immunities are not there just for the sake of being there. It is there for a purpose not to hinder some of the work that the President has to do. I would probably seek advice from many of my colleagues along with professional advice on some of these other things about [immunity] in and out of governance and so forth,” Ramotar said. He said that in all constitutions, there is some measure of immunity that the president would benefit front, because of the very nature of the office they hold.
Meanwhile, Ramotar said that the party is about to begin the process of finalizing its full slate for the elections. The party is currently drafting its manifesto, Ramotar disclosed. The matter of who will be the party’s prime ministerial candidate is still to be discussed. He confirmed that the party will once again be joining with a civic arm to contest the elections, but said that no discussions have been held to determine whether the prime ministerial candidate would be from the civic.
Speaking about his candidacy, Ramotar stated that there were several things in his favour that would have led to him being selected as the party’s candidate and not merely his training as an economist. “By training I studied economics. But I’ve been in politics for most of my life… I’ve been in the grassroots, in the communities, in every nook and cranny in this country. I’ve been involved in every single manifesto/communities. I think there are many, many factors that probably go into my own candidacy that allowed the party to feel that I would probably have the best shot of winning the elections,” he said.
President Bharrat Jagdeo has pointed to Ramotar’s training as an economist as one of the major pluses to his candidacy. However, critics have pointed to Ramotar’s lack of experience in any post requiring such expertise.
Ramotar was also asked what he would say to the critics of the party and their accusations about the party’s alleged ties to corruption, the narco trade and other nefarious activities. “There is no accusation against the party as such. I haven’t heard any such allegations,” he said in response. “There have been some criticisms about the government in that regard but all of them have been unsubstantiated. In fact you had a commission of inquiry in one case….and they have not proven anything,” he continued. “My own view, a lot of the accusations and attacks of that nature against the party have been more political, more scandalous… I suspect that many are working on the theory `throw as much mud as possible, some might stick’… there’s absolutely no evidence of that,” he said. He opined that the people would vote for the party because it had delivered.
Questioned as to what set him apart from the PNCR’s presidential candidate David Granger, Ramotar said that the two had grown up differently. Ramotar said he had grown up in a democratic party.
“Our records are different. We grew up differently, I grew up in a political party that has always been fighting for democracy and social progress. Granger grew up in a political party that imposed a dictatorship on this country. I was fighting against what he was defending and promoting, when we were both growing up in this country as well. There are a lot of distinctions between me and Mr. Granger”, he said.
Ramotar also indicated that he would be open to debates among the presidential candidates of all the political parties. “I suspect that it might be unavoidable,” Ramotar said, when asked about there being debates among the presidential candidates from the different parties. AFC presidential candidate Khemraj Ramjattan has called for such debates.
Meanwhile, when questioned about President Bharrat Jagdeo’s recent attacks against his (Ramotar’s) political opponents despite agreeing to have a clean electoral campaign, Ramotar said he did not feel it would affect his campaign.
“I don’t have any problems listening to him while he is attacking,” Ramotar said, when asked if he was bothered listening to these statements by the President. He said too that the president’s attack has been looked at within the context that the media and other persons have been doing their best to threaten his presidency. According to him, it is understandable that the president would want to defend himself.
Yesterday’s press conference, Ramotar said, had been convened as there had been several requests from the media for interviews. He said that it was decided that a press conference would be held first before granting interviews to specific media houses.
