A THIRD TERM FOR PRESIDENT JAGDEO?

Aug 13, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

A picture appeared in one of the daily newspapers showing President Bharrat Jagdeo sandwiched between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. The photograph was shot during the swearing in of President Rafael Correa of Ecuador for a second term.
It showed President Chavez to the left of President Jagdeo and President Zelaya to the right. Quite unmannerly, President Chavez is leaning across President Jagdeo and shaking hands with his deposed friend and ally, Manuel Zelaya.
Our own President Jagdeo is sitting there with a smile on his face, amused by something but at the same time with his thoughts seemingly far away. What was he thinking?
Could it be that like both men have done quite controversially in their own countries, he was contemplating holding a referendum to amend our own Constitution?
There has been speculation in Guyana in recent weeks about a possible third term for our President, something that would require a change of our constitution either by a two-thirds majority or by changes wrought through a referendum.
There has been speculation within legal circles that our Constitution can be amended to provide for a third term for the President without either a two-thirds majority or a referendum. This matter is presently being researched and this column will keep the public abreast as to whether this can be done.
Whether it can be or not is of pure academic interest. Our President had however made it clear in April of this year, while attending the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad, that he is not interested in a third term. And he must be taken at his word. But the speculation has resurfaced following an alleged poll which was said to have been conducted recently and which showed that if President Bharrat Jagdeo were to receive the nomination of his party, he would be reelected as President.
I do not know what the pollster was thinking when he surveyed that particular aspect but anyone familiar with the politics of Guyana would advise that you do not need a poll for that fact to be confirmed. The PPP is a solid party and knows how to win elections. While it still enjoys, in the main, the ethnic vote of East Indians, the PPP knows how to win elections freely and fairly.
It does not matter who is the candidate. You can take a child and dress him how you want and that child will win the elections once he or she is on the PPP slate. So, we do not need any poll to inform us that President Jagdeo will win the elections if he wins his party’s nomination. Whoever wins the PPP nomination, even if it is Roger Luncheon, will win the next elections in Guyana. It is as simple as that.
This resurrection of the idea of a third term for President Bharrat Jagdeo is simply a diversionary tactic and an attempt to redeem the flagging popularity of the President and one of his underlings. It comes at a time when there have been damaging disclosures on the political front as well as the confirmation that the sugar industry last year suffered its worst ever financial loss, to the tune of four billion dollars.
There is no need for any talk about a third term for President Bharrat Jagdeo. The man has clearly indicated that he is not interested in a third term. While in small, challenging societies like Guyana, the idea of limiting the number of terms of a leader of a country is itself a self-defeating limitation since no leader can effectively entrench the direction in which he wishes to move an underdeveloped country within two five year terms, the experience that Guyanese have suffered under President Jagdeo’s tenure would tend to suggest that it would be better if when the time comes for President Jagdeo to leave office that he does so gracefully and that his allies do not try to foist any talk of a third term for him on Guyanese.
Under the Constitution of Guyana, a President cannot be elected for more than two elected terms in office. President Jagdeo in technical sense had three terms already. The first was the unfinished term of Mrs. Janet Jagan from 1999 to 2001, his first elected term from 2001-2006 and his second and final term from 2006 to when elections are due in two years’ time.
There is only so much that a leader can do in two terms. Two terms are not good enough for any President to make his mark. But in the case of President Jagdeo, two elected terms is long enough. The PPP will find another presidential candidate to contest those elections and that candidate will win. The Guyanese people will welcome a new PPP President in 2011.

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A THIRD TERM FOR PRESIDENT JAGDEO?

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