THE RETURN OF BIG B?

Dec 09, 2014 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The Mirror newspaper which is associated with the ruling party this past weekend gave front page significance to the PPP’s congratulations to Tabare Vazquez, the President-elect of Uruguay.
I hope the opposition parties, especially the heady Alliance for Change (AFC), are paying attention. I hope that they are “reading between the lines”.
The PPP has never in recent times given such significance to any President-elect of any South American country or to any leftist leader who was elected to office. Not in recent times! So, why Tabare Vazquez, the President of Uruguay, a country which is not a neighbour or even a trading partner with Guyana?
The front page feature by the Mirror is not a gesture of comradely solidarity. Vasquez, the incoming President and Jose Mujica, the incumbent are leftists. But the PPP is not forging any leftist alliances. In fact, the PPP is far removed from its leftist roots. So why the front page coverage of the congratulations to Vazquez?
The PPP is not enamored with the leaders of Uruguay’s Broad Front. It is not trying to imitate the lifestyle of the incumbent Mujica who drives an old Volkswagen to work. He wears leather slippers rather than shoes to work. He joins the line for treatment at the hospital. He donates more than 90 per cent of his salary to the poor. And the incumbent President lives on an old-ramshackle farm owned by his wife. So why the front page coverage of the congratulations to Vazquez?
The PPP after the experience of being toppled by the Americans in the 1960’s are never going to be as radical and anti-imperialist as the incoming President of Uruguay, Tabare Vazquez. So why the front page coverage of the party’s congratulations to Vasquez?
The significance I believe has to do with the fact that Vazquez is returning after a break of one term. Vazquez was President of Uruguay from 2005 to 2010. Jose Mujica succeeded him from 2010 to 2015. Vazquez now returns from a second term. The Constitution of Uruguay does not allow for consecutive terms. As such, Vazquez had to sit out a term and wait until the end of Mujica’s five-year term before he could have returned which is what will happen as a result of his recent election victory.
The Constitution of Uruguay is explicit. It unambiguously states that a president cannot be reelected until five years has elapsed since the end of his term. As such there is no consecutive term. But a president can be reelected after a gap of five years. There is no ambiguity in the wording of the Uruguayan Constitution. There was also never any need in that country for any challenge to the constitutionality of term limits.
In Guyana of course there is at least one legal opinion that a President who has served two terms after 2001 can be reelected for a third term once there is an interruption between the end of his second term and the beginning of a new term. The opposition does not agree with this opinion but it must bear certain facts in mind.
If the PPP goes with Bharrat Jagdeo for the forthcoming elections, once he is elected as President, regardless of the legality of his candidacy, he is insulated from removal by the Constitution which states that a suit cannot be brought against a sitting President. So once the Guyana Elections Commission announces that Bharrat Jagdeo is the duly elected winner of any election next year, no legal challenge will succeed since the Presidency is immune from such challenges.
The opposition parties may feel that the PPP will not go this route. But then again, these same parties did not feel that Donald Ramotar would have prorogued parliament. They may also feel that the PPP before announcing the candidacy of Bharrat Jagdeo as the party’s presidential candidate for the 2015 elections would likely approach the Courts for an interpretation as to whether Guyana’s Constitution allows a third term for a President first elected after 2001.
The opposition had better be careful. If Jagdeo returns they will be caught off guard since all of their preparations for elections are being made on the presumption that it is Ramotar that will lead the PPP into the elections.
If Jagdeo is the candidate it puts a different complexion on things.
The opposition parties were out maneuvered by Ramotar when he moved to prorogation. They had better be wary that they are not outfoxed again when it comes to the person they are likely to face in the 2015 polls.
They should preempt the PPP. The opposition parties should immediately, as a safeguard, seek the interpretation of the Courts on this controversial issue of the third term because it is one thing to face Ramotar but it is another thing to face Jagdeo. He may be controversial but he is no pushover.
Surprises are not good for the opposition. They have been caught napping before.  They should avoid being caught off guard.

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