The PPP/C says the opposition’s tactics on the selecting of a Speaker for the new Parliament show a lack of sincerity which does not bode well for future cooperation; an assertion which the APNU and the AFC both denied yesterday.
The PPP/C issued a statement on Thursday, in which it referred to a report in the Stabroek News on the same day, indicating that A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC) are to settle on an opposition candidate who they will vote in using their parliamentary majority.
“This is varying from the practice of parliamentary democracies within the Commonwealth. In those countries it is the ruling party whose nominee gets the position while the deputy goes to the opposition. This was the practice while the PPP had the majority in Parliament as well,” the ruling party said.
Noting its intention to nominate former Speaker Ralph Ramkarran, who it said had won commendation from both sides of the House, the PPP/C said the opposition’s tactics signalled a lack of intent to cooperate with the government with any degree of sincerity. “The fact that they have moved away from the established practice of parliamentary democracies speaks volumes. This does not bode well for future cooperation.” It further asked if the opposition was settling for its own candidate “What was the purpose of the matter being on the agenda for talks with the PPP/C government?”
The PPP/C charged that in the new situation in Guyana, the opposition parties, previously opposed to “winner taking all” have now moved to the “ridiculous position of ‘losers taking all.’”
What APNU and AFC [are] saying is that the Speaker will be coming from the opposition,” APNU’s deputy leader Dr Rupert Roopnaraine said yesterday, when asked to respond to the PPP/C’s statement. “We are not persuaded by any of this [the PPP/C’s arguments],” Roopnaraine added. He said that while the AFC and APNU have not settled on the candidate the process is ongoing and will be concluded shortly. Speaking for APNU, he said that the coalition would not mind discussing the matter with the PPP/C after the opposition would have settled on a nominee.
“The AFC is bemused at the PPP‘s antics regarding the appointment of Speaker,” AFC Leader Raphael Trotman told this newspaper yesterday. “They have to understand that the electorate has spoken and none of the parties should treat their mandates lightly or believe that it can be bargained with, or compromised,” he added.
The PPP, he said, has to understand that there is a new order and that there has been a change. “They have to get used to the fact that they don’t control everything any longer. The argument that they are entitled to the Speaker’s chair based on Commonwealth precedent is a very disingenuous argument, when one considers that we are operating in a hybrid of the Westminster system where we have an executive president.” Trotman remarked that under the doctrine of separation of powers “it is nonsense for the PPP to want to control both the executive and the legislature when it only won the executive.”
“The opposition would be guilty of the greatest abdication of responsibility and betrayal of the people’s trust if we gave up the chairmanship of the Assembly’s affairs to the PPP,” the AFC Leader opined.
Further, Trotman said, the opposition parties formally indicated a willingness to work with the PPP government in a national-unity construct and that proposal was rebuffed. “It is their insincerity that we’re dealing with now. “Ralph Ramkarran was a good speaker but the order has changed and he would be out of place in the present situation,” he said.
In Thursday’s article, it was reported that APNU and the AFC were still locked in discussions as to who will be the opposition nominee for Speaker of the National Assembly. AFC Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan is lobbying for Moses Nagamootoo to fill the post while APNU is backing Deborah Backer.
Trotman, however, told Stabroek News that the party will not abstain from the vote on the Speaker at the expense of an opposition person. “We definitely want an opposition nominee to be speaker,” he said.
Recently APNU leader David Granger told Stabroek News that APNU and the AFC were committed to selecting a candidate that would best meet a set of identified requirements. He said that at first the parties were caught up with personalities but since then the talks have come on track with the focus being on seeing what is best needed for the effective running of the National Assembly and in selecting someone who can effectively do this.
While conceding that the decision was taking some time, Granger said the parties were not in a rush to make a bad decision.
