Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo Monday warned the coalition government of doing anything “outside the routine functioning of the state” as he announced plans for an early meeting with President David Granger next year following the successful motion of no confidence against his administration last weekend.
“Anything outside the routine functioning of the state must come to a halt because the government has fallen. They have diminished authority,” Jagdeo told a news conference.
He also urged public servants not to be “pressured to do anything illegal,” adding “the public servants have a bigger role to play in a caretaker role.”
Jagdeo, whose People’s Progressive Party (PPP) last Friday successfully tabled the motion of no confidence and received the backing of one government backbencher, Charrandass Persaud, said that he had agreed to meet with President Granger early next month after he returns from Cuba where he is receiving treatment for cancer.
The Opposition Leader said he has received the certification of no confidence from the Clerk of the National Assembly and that he had also received a letter from the Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, indicating that President Granger would be willing to meet with him at a date to be set in January.
The Opposition Leader told the news conference that he had a number of issues he would want to discuss with Granger next month, including the preparations for general elections to be held by March next year as a result of the successful motion of no confidence, the implications of the poor health of the chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Retired Justice James Patterson and the possible closer political cooperation between the PPP and the coalition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) government.
A confident Jagdeo told reporters that while his party is not gloating about last weekend’s successful motion of no confidence in the present administration, he wanted to assure present APNU legislators that they would not be discriminated against if the PPP returns to power.
“As Guyanese, I say to them too that there is hope for the future. Any government that is formed by the PPP will not be judged by who they voted for,” he said.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Private Sector Commission (PSC), Desmond Sears, is calling for unity among in the country as the political situation unfolds.
My very first wish, and this is shared by all in the Private Sector Commission, is for genuine unity between the political parties who have the option of uniting Guyana through their collective will,” Sears said in an end of year message, adding “I would also like to urge all stakeholders to work towards supporting the government of the day, regardless of personal political preference.”
