Former President Donald Ramotar says that he does not regret his prorogation of the 10th Parliament last year and if given the opportunity he would do it again.
“ I don’t regret it, no and I would again, yeah I would ,” Ramotar told Stabroek News when asked if the prorogation was a regret given that it led to his eventual loss of the May 11th General Elections.
He said that he still holds firm to the view that what he did was not unlawful as it is catered for in the constitution and thinks the move was only unpopular among opposition forces and the international community. The latter, he blasted for what he called hypocrisy for their speaking out on the act.
On November 10th last year, Ramotar controversially prorogued Parlia-ment to avoid his minority government having to face an AFC-led motion of no-confidence.
He had said that the period would be used to dialogue with the opposition. After his attempts to engage the opposition in dialogue failed to get off the ground, Ramotar later promised to name a date for elections early this year, after saying he did not want to interrupt Christmas celebrations.
Pressure mounted on his administration both locally and internationally and he was forced to dissolve parliament and set a date for new elections on January 20th this year. In an address to the nation, he explained “Unfortunately, the opportunities that prorogation provided for continued dialogue and engagements with the parliamentary opposition parties have not materialized. The parliamentary opposition adopted an inflexible position that they will not engage with me until parliament is reconvened. I had hoped that they would have reconsidered this unproductive posture and meet with me so that we can discuss our differences and find solutions to advance the development of Guyana,”
Then, Ramotar also said he took the decision to prorogue Parliament to “enfranchise” persons who could not get on the voters roll at the last elections because of a lack of source documents. He identified these persons as being mainly residents living in the hinterland.
Ramotar told Stabroek News during a recent interview that he knows that his government found little support for the act, which critics argued had shut down the legislative branch of government and the forum through which the people’s representatives are heard, but he feels that the lack of support only came from the opposition and western diplomats.
“I don’t think it was unpopular, maybe unpopular among the opposition forces. It is unfortunate that happened and the hypocrisy from some diplomats is appalling. When you think about it that the former Prime Minister of Canada (Stephen) Harper prorogued his parliament four times but that was never an issue with the Europeans, the Americans, the British,” he stated.
“What I did was within our constitution and therefore it cannot be undemocratic. I did what the constitution allowed me to do. It was legal. It was done with the intention of getting a solution I felt at the time the APNU was not quite full with them,” he added.
He blamed APNU for his decision to prorogue saying if he had gotten a commitment from them that they would side with his government in exchange for the holding of Local Government Elections and shunning the AFC’s no confidence motion (NCM), the prorogation would have been called off.
“I thought if I had given them space and the only tool I felt I had to give them space to think was the prorogation. Unfortunately I was working with a sword of Damocles over my head that anytime they could call a snap election, a result of a no confidence motion,” he asserted.
He added, “We and the APNU did talk about local government elections. The last time I spoke with (now President David) Granger (I did) but then I asked him if he would support the no confidence motion in the National Assembly and he said he was committed to that to supporting …then I knew we were heading nowhere. How am I going to call (LGE) if you are telling me you are going to support the motion? I asked the man ‘Can you give me your assurance that you won’t support the NCM?’ but he could not.”
Asked why he didn’t call Local Government Elections anyway, he argued “How could I? I couldn’t because I had to wait on the preparedness of the Gecom because they were not. Up to now they are not,” he posited.
