The Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) will field the first parliamentary representative for the seat awarded to its joint list with those of The New Movement (TNM) and A New and United Guyana (ANUG) after the March 2nd elections although the amount of time each party will serve during the 12th Parliament is still being worked out.
Representatives of the three parties last evening told a press conference that if they were to go according to votes received, it would mean the LJP would be serving in Parliament for 2 years and 5 months, ANUG for 2 years and 4 months, and TNM for 80 days.
However, they were all quick to point out that while they have individual party policies and the lists joinder agreement they signed in February will guide their representative on voting in the House and in the Committee of Supply, they already know that they all want constitutional reform and will lobby for this.
“There is no decision we can really put forth on what is going to happen, except that we engage in more meaningful dialogue so we get the substance of what each party represents,” Leader of the JLP Lenox Shuman told the press briefing last evening.
“The order of sitting in that seat was not written in stone. Before that decision is made we have to meet,” TNM representative Asha Kissoon said.
Shuman explained that each party will meet with their respective executives to discuss how they move forward and a decision would be made before they submit the name of the representative to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
While he said that all three of the parties were relieved that the grueling post-elections political impasse had come to an end, he said that the laws of this country must be reformed to never again allow the people of this country to endure a recurrence. All the parties supported this view.
“We will agitate as much as possible to ensure that is realised…so that when we are sitting in 2025, constitutional reform doesn’t just become another empty promise. [We had in] 2011 electoral reforms, 2015 electoral reforms, 2020 electoral reforms. At some point, the people have to hold them accountable and the only way you hold a government accountable is through that single vote that we fought so hard for… over the last five months. So if there isn’t constitutional reform in the next five years, and I say meaningful constitutional reform, then it is for us to ensure the public is appraised and understand that position and ensure that their franchise is exercised,” Shuman said.
“It has been a broken record and everyone campaigned on constitutional reform but we haven’t seen it. So yes, the three parties are in agreement that we will be pushing for that,” TNM’s Presidential Candidate Kissoon added.
“The only way to fix these types of problems is through constitutional reform,” ANUG representative Jonathan Yearwood added.
Collectively
In January of this year, the three parties agreed to join their lists of candidates so that the votes they secured at the March 2 general and regional elections could be counted collectively and thus improve their chances of securing parliamentary and regional seats.
They then signed the historic agreement on February 14th of this year. “This [signing] is demonstrating to the Guyanese people as to what it takes to make sure this country is united…what you see before you here is part of that paradigm shift,” Shuman had said at the signing, while Kissoon said they wanted to make sure that every vote counts.
When the results were declared by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), it showed a victory for the PPP/C with the presidency and 33 seats in Parliament, the incumbent APNU+AFC securing 31 seats and the list joining LJP, TNM and ANUG receiving one.
Each party is expected to identify their parliamentary representatives to GECOM by Friday August 7th.
It was ANUG, according to Kissoon, which suggested that another formula other than votes secured be used to give “some more time to TNM” and this was supported by LJP. “Of course the TNM won’t refuse,” Kissoon added.
The details of how the seat will be split between the three parties was explained in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) along with the guidelines for their actions in the National Assembly.
“Where the leftover votes of each party cumulatively entitle the combination of parties to one or more additional seats, the seat or seats will be shared by the parties in proportion to the leftover votes contributed by that party toward the additional seat or seats as follows:
The party with the largest number of leftover votes will be entitled to nominate the first member of the National Assembly who shall serve the length of time that is derived from (the proportion of votes).
The parties with the second and the third largest number of votes will be entitled to nominate the second and third members of the National Assembly in accordance with the principle set out at paragraph 4…
Each member of the National Assembly who is appointed by one of the parties, pursuant to the leftover votes obtained by the three parties, will resign as a member of the National Assembly at the time determined by the combination of parties immediately before the convening of the National Assembly.
“The parties undertake that in respect of the seat or seats shared among them by leftover votes, the occupant of that seat shall vote in Parliament only with the approval of all three parties and otherwise shall abstain from voting,” the MoU states.
The three parties had said that they will never join the party that wins the elections and yesterday reiterated this even as they dismissed criticisms that they have supported the PPP/C during the recount process.
Skeleton
“There is already a skeleton of a mechanism to deal with that [voting in the National Assembly]. I don’t see any PPP/C paraphernalia around us, and I think that is an expression of the three parties. What we did was fight for democracy for the people of Guyana,” he said.
The agreement by the three parties states that under no circumstances would they join the government of the party that obtains the plurality or majority for the purpose of obtaining ministerial or other governmental office or to give a minority government a majority.
But each party is given the room to retain their respective identity and independence and thus can continue to work towards their own policy realizations.
“The parties shall be free at any time and any place to independently advance and propagate the central issues of their campaign,” the MoU says. “The parties may in their discretion mount joint campaigns wherever and whenever possible,” it added.
