President Irfaan Ali is insisting that he will not meet with the main opposition until it accepts his government as legitimate, which Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon on Friday dismissed as a hypocritical attempt to avoid scrutiny.
During an interview with senior journalists on Tuesday, Ali was asked when and how his government would open dialogue with the main opposition, the APNU+AFC coalition. In response, he said that Harmon must first “fix the misleading narrative” he has provided to the people of Guyana.
“Mr. Harmon must be honest enough to go out to the public and say the PPP has been legitimately elected and it is the recognized Government of Guyana and then we’ll talk,” Ali said in the 30 minute interview published by the Office of the President.
“This is a legitimately elected government…if you don’t recognise me you can’t come to talk to me,” he stressed.
Harmon, in response, on Friday accused the PPP/C of hypocrisy. He noted that in 2015 the PPP/C maintained for months that the coalition government was illegitimate and he quoted several news articles in which PPP/C senior members described the coalition as de facto and fraudulent. “While the Irfaan Ali regime puts up a posture of defence in public it is the opposition’s considered view that they are trying to prevent scrutiny of their slipshod work in government,” Harmon told a virtual press conference.
He shared a letter he had written to Ali on September 24th to request copies of all agreements signed during the visit by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Guyana.
“This is, of course, a matter of national importance and accordingly I shall be grateful if, at your earliest convenience, you would be so kind as to furnish me with all agreements, oral or written which were concluded between the Co-operative Republic of Guyana and the United States of America after August 2, 2020,” the letter reads.
According to Harmon, there has so far been no acknowledgment of the letter more than one week later.
Harmon stressed that the constitution is clear that consultation between the President and his Office is necessary with no preconditions.
“The constitution specifically requires that there be consultation with the Leader of the Opposition by the President in the appointment of a number of constitutional office holders. No precondition is attached,” he pointed out, while identifying several offices, including that of the Chancellor and Chief Justice, and the Ombudsman.
