President David Granger will address the Parliament when it resumes sittings on Thursday, while the reports from a number of key inquiries, including those into the $632 million in drug purchases by the Georgetown Hospital, and the alleged assassination plot against the president are expected to be tabled.
Granger’s address will come in wake of the political crisis that has developed following his unilateral appointment of the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom). As a result of the appointment, the PPP/C has declared non-co-operation with the administration and may not be in Parliament for his presentation.
Granger’s speech will be parsed for signs of conciliation as observers have argued that the unilateral declaration of a chairman has set back efforts at healing the ethnic and political divide in the country. Civil society has broadly condemned the unilateral naming of 84-year-old retired Justice James Patterson as the Gecom Chairman and western missions here have also offered cautious responses which have said that the matter should be settled swiftly in the courts and that democratic norms should prevail.