Will he step down?

Jan 10, 2011 Editorial

The way we read it, with the present Parliament convened on September 28th 2006, its life expires – at the maximum – five years later and elections will then have to be held within three months.
Constitutionally, therefore, General Elections must be held by the end of this year. The second constitutional given we have is that a President is limited to two five year terms period. The latter stipulation was specifically inserted into the constitution after nationwide consultations, so that there can be no ambiguity about its intent.
Yet for all of that, the speculation that President Jagdeo is maneuvering for a third term will just not be stifled. The President for his part has consistently denied that he has any such intention but he has been singularly unsuccessful in damping the rumours.
It is a sign of the lack of trust in our fractured political system that the suspicions are not confined to the practicing politicians but find fertile ground in the ordinary citizen in the streets.
Recently, the accusations have taken a different slant and were articulated by several letter writers in the press. The President, it is alleged, is planning to invoke the two years that the PPP was forced to relinquish from its legitimate right to govern pursuant to its 1997 victory after the PNC took to the streets in protests that descended into massive violence. He will therefore supposedly claim that if he can broker a deal with the PNC to complete those two years of governance, no constitutional stipulation will be broken. The two “missing” years will not be a “third term”.
To sweeten the deal for the PNC and others in the opposition camp, it is claimed that the President intends to propose that the additional two years be run under a “shared governance” regime – which the PNC and many opposition activists have been clamouring for.
While it is expected that many in the PPP will be opposed to such a scenario, the President is alleged to believe that the country will support the move in the interest of security and stability. During the two years, new constitutional arrangements could be worked out ostensibly to deal with the need for “more inclusive governance structures”.
In his column in yesterday’s edition of this newspaper, Khemraj Ramjattan, Chairman of the AFC – and whose party would be locked out of the arrangement – supported the above speculation when he wrote: “the President will, with not too subtle a sleight of hand, pull off a third term and/or a major extension of his second term. His term must end later this year. Notwithstanding rebuttals by the President and his propagandists on this issue, we are convinced that Bharrat Jagdeo will scuttle the arrangements for elections this year through multiple manoeuvres at the legal and political levels. Our information is that major elements of the PNCR may not find this approach one to be condemned or denounced. Steps are already being taken to achieve this.”
Interestingly enough, late last week, the PNC’s leader Robert Corbin claimed that Jagdeo had sought legal advice on how he could possibly extend his term of office.
According to Corbin, the legal opinion unanimously advised that it was neither legally nor constitutionally possible: “The last opinion advised that unless there is a National emergency there is no way of delaying the General and Regional Elections…More details were later sought on how that emergency could be created.” Corbin then directly linked some recent developments as signs that the raison d’etre for the national emergency may be manufactured “national security” issues.
The President immediately issued another unequivocal denial that he intends to stay on beyond his present term of office. He demanded that the leader of the PNC produce the names of the legal experts from whom he had allegedly sought advice.
While the accusations flying between the two leaders might seem to nullify the hypothesis of PNC’s collusion in extension-of-term manoeuvres, the jaded electorate understands the game of politics. Can there be smoke without fire?

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