Opposition Leader David Granger yesterday said he did not expect much from President Donald Ramotar’s planned announcement today on a way forward after his prorogation gambit failed to yield dialogue, while noting that all meaningful engagement held so far has amounted to naught.
“The ball, as you say in tennis, is entirely in the president’s court,” he told reporters yesterday when asked to respond to a proposal made by the Private Sector Commission (PCS) on Thursday. The PSC has pitched a proposal for the resumption of parliament and a stay of the opposition’s planned no-confidence motion for a one-month period for meaningful dialogue between the government and the opposition.
Granger told reporters at the APNU weekly press conference that it was an interesting initiative from the PSC. He said his first reaction was that the main points raised by the PSC were exhaustively dealt with in meetings with the president during this year. He recalled that meetings were held in February and then again in October where several matters, including the Anti-Money Laundering Bill, were discussed but with no success. “So actually the president has successfully prevented serious discussions on resolutions of these issues for the last nine months…,” he said
Granger said Ramotar should be directed to come to opposition and resolve these problems.
Asked about the PSC’s call for an end to the prorogation period, he responded that Ramotar should be asked to end it.
“It is the president who prorogued parliament and it is the president who must end the prorogation,” Granger said, while adding that the party’s focus has since been shifted from a call for local government elections to demanding the revocation of the prorogation.
As regards the planned no-confidence motion against the government, Granger said his party had given support to the Alliance For Change, which is the architect of that motion and it is outside of the ambit of APNU to withdraw it.
When asked about the president’s expected announcement of a way forward today and what he was expecting to hear, Granger responded, “Not much. He might announce a way but it wouldn’t be forward… I don’t expect much so I wouldn’t be disappointed.”
Asked what assurances he would give that there will be room for dialogue and that the opposition would not push ahead with the no-confidence motion should the president announce an end to prorogation, he said, “I don’t have to give the president any assurances. He has to do what he has to do. He has to end this prorogation.”
PSC Chairman Ramesh Persaud has proposed that Ramotar considers bringing an end to the prorogation of parliament as soon as practical but no later than the end of this month and that all parties agree to a stay of one-month to facilitate dialogue on key issues before consideration is given to either dissolving the parliament or passing a no-confidence motion against the government.
The PSC also proposed that civil society observe the dialogue process.
The proposed agenda put forward by the PSC includes setting a date for local government elections, agreeing on a mechanism to resolve bills that were not assented to by the president, agreeing on a mechanism for approval of supplementary expenditure for 2014, and formulating an inclusionary mechanism for budget talks for the next two years. Completing the set-up of all commissions required by the constitution has also been proposed.
