General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party, Clement Rohee yesterday said that the party is still evaluating the nominating of its 32 Members of Parliament and stated that the party will not be pressured by any external forces.
At the party’s Monday press briefing held at Freedom House, Rohee said that “we are approaching this thing at our own pace. We are not approaching this based on what somebody might have said in a newspaper, a diplomat might have said something in the newspaper or an individual might have expressed something in the newspaper. This is our, these are our seats …which were granted as a result of the votes we got in the elections. They will be taken up at the appropriate time when the party considers it necessary to do so.”
Rohee’s remarks came after outgoing Canadian High Com-missioner Dr Nicole Giles in an interview with Stabroek News urged the PPP/C to take up its seats in parliament. She noted the need for the country to move swiftly towards electoral reforms and address matters such as the use of state resources during elections.
Rohee’s response would also be seen as indirect criticism of PPP/C MP in the 10th Parliament, Vindhya Vasini Persaud who stated in an email to several of her colleagues “I strongly urge, as I did previously at our meeting, that we go to Parliament and represent our support base as a formidable opposition.
We need to demonstrate a positive and united approach as a party and represent Guyanese at the highest level holding the de facto Government accountable for their actions. Their many actions taken since their ascendancy require our scrutiny, objection and rejection. In the height of rigged elections, Dr. Jagan went to Parliament as Opposition- he understood that the party’s voice needed to be heard and recorded at that level.”
Rohee when questioned by members of the media as to the party’s view of Persaud’s email stated that “her view does not gel with a majority view within the PPP.”
Submission of the MPs’ names to the Guyana Elections Commission was supposed to have been done 15 days after the May 11, General and Regional Elections. In 2011 when the PPP/C won the election the list of MPs was presented within 48 hours.
Rohee said “this is a matter that is under constant evaluation by the executive committee. The executive committee meets once every week, sometimes more than once every week. In fact we are meeting more than once every week to settle our regional councillor candidates for regional councils which is quite an extensive discussion and the possibilities for chairman and vice chairman. After we have selected that we will move to the question of MPs.”
While the party appears to be in no rush the delay is in contravention of the governing legislation the Representation of the People Act. Under the Act, Gecom is to write to the Representative of the List, Donald Ramotar for the list of MPs. Should the Representative deny the submission, Gecom is to request it from the Deputy Representative which would be Rohee.
Stabroek News was informed that Ramotar had declined to perform his duty and Gecom has not received a response from Rohee. Should Rohee refuse then the Act states in Section 98 (c) “in case of any such unwillingness or inability on the party of the deputy representative, a majority of the persons named in that list may designate in writing any such person able and willing (when called upon as aforesaid) ..” to perform the duties of providing a list of MPs to be appointed to the 32 seats in the National Assembly.
As an attempt to justify the party’s actions, Rohee stated that in 1997 Desmond Hoyte and the PNC had boycotted Parliament for roughly two years and the Herdmanston Accord and the subsequent St Lucia Accord was the only way to resolve the issue.
Rohee avoided numerous attempts by the media to ask about the over 200,000 votes the party received and whether the party didn’t have an obligation to its voters to represent their interest immediately in the National Assembly.
“We need to have an end game with multiple paths to same. While we may go ahead with our petition and pressure on Gecom, we must simultaneously take our seats in parliament continuously reminding APNU of their illegitimate occupation of their offices. We must prove that we are capable of being the opposition that we demanded of APNU while consistently articulating their every failure,” Persaud had stated in her email.
The first sitting of the National Assembly was held on June 10, with the 32 PPP/C seats remaining empty.
