After weeks of talks primarily focused on the selection of a Speaker, the two parliamentary Opposition parties are expected to soon settle on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the basis of future engagements.
Vice-Chairman of A Partnership for National Unity, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine said yesterday that his party has agreed internally on a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation between itself and the Alliance For Change (AFC).
Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday, Dr. Roopnaraine said that the MOU is to be the basis for the next meeting between the two parties as they strive to work out a roadmap of cooperation.
He said that as soon as that document gets to the AFC a meeting is to be finalized for continued talks. “No date for the meeting has been set” he said.
It is expected that the next meeting and any other thereafter will be guided by the MOU.
Asked about what the MOU contained, Dr. Roopnaraine remained tight-lipped, but said that it will go far in terms of cooperation between the two parties.
When this newspaper spoke with senior members of the AFC last night, they stated that they had not yet received any such document.
Further, Dr. Roopnaraine said that there has been no word from the Government’s side on any meetings for further talks among the three parties.
He said that APNU has done all it has been required to do in terms of submission of names for working groups and submission of agendas for discussions.
At its press conference held on Wednesday the AFC said that it had dispatched a letter to APNU identifying Raphael Trotman, Khemraj Ramjattan, Clayton Hall, Cathy Hughes, Moses Nagamootoo and Gerhard Ramsaroop as their representatives to bilateral engagements and it was up to that point awaiting response.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Leader of the Opposition David Granger said that he expected that the tripartite talks among the parties will make real progress towards realizing the goal of inclusionary democracy as prescribed under Article 13 of the Constitution.
The Government and the PPP have condemned the actions of the AFC and APNU, which banded together to select a Speaker of the National Assembly and used their majority in the House to win Raphael Trotman the vote, 33 to 32 last week Thursday.
Government and the ruling party said that the two parties broke away from parliamentary convention by not allowing the party with the single largest bloc of votes to control the Speaker-ship.
Both APNU and the AFC rejected Government’s and the PPP/C’s position on this, saying that the Opposition simply used its majority to elect a Speaker of its choice.
