Ramotar says ...No more Parliament, elections next year

Ramotar says …No more Parliament, elections next year

Dec 07, 2014 News

By Abena Rockcliffe
The government is not remotely willing to allow a debate on the Alliance For Change’s (AFC) sponsored No-Confidence

President Donald Ramotar

motion and has therefore decided to go to the polls.
This was made known yesterday as President Donald Ramotar addressed the media at State House.
Ramotar declared that he will, early in the New Year, announce “further steps towards the direction of General and Regional elections in Guyana.”
The President said, as well, that he has communicated with the international community alerting of the “possibility” of early elections and the desire for observers.
Before he made this announcement, Ramotar chronicled the recent series of events that he took into consideration when he made a decision to prorogue Parliament.
The President said that he prorogued the Parliament to preserve the life of the Tenth Parliament so as to provide another opportunity for the National Assembly to address the many issues that are yet to have parliamentary consideration.
He said, however, that the parliamentary opposition reacted disappointingly and sought to “discredit” his initiative. It even claimed prorogation was unconstitutional.
The President acknowledged that Opposition leader, David Granger, declined to have any talks with the PPP administration outside Parliament during the continued prorogation.
He said that Granger’s recent refusal of dialogue made him concede that his reported objectives of prorogation were unlikely to be achieved.
The President said that he then realized that he had two choices either to reconvene Parliament or go to the polls.
Ramotar said that returning to the Parliament was not an option he exercised on November 10 because it would not have been “business as usual”. So he has taken the option of calling General Elections.
He said, however, that he chose not to damper the Christmas spirit with “purposeless parliamentary debates.”
The President said that he “intends” to, early in the New Year, announce further steps towards the direction of General and Regional Elections in Guyana.
He said that in the meantime, he will be consulting with the Guyana Elections Commission on its readiness.
The President said that there is a possibility that the announcement on the date could be contained in the President’s New Year’s address.
Ramotar, who heads a minority government, says he is not only confident of winning the next elections but is also sure of regaining his majority. He reasoned that Guyanese have learnt over the last three years from the outcome of having a majority opposition.