The National Assembly has not lost confidence in the government

Mar 29, 2019 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

The no-confidence motion and all the subsequent statements and actions, including the appeal to the Caribbean Court of Justice, by the PPP/C and its cohorts are the latest scenes, not the beginning, in the long-running plot to overturn the results of the 2015 General and Regional Elections, which dismissed them from office after 23 years in power. The PPP/C protested the election results, chastised the international observers and other members of the international community for upholding the conduct of those elections, petitioned the courts, hounded the former Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission out of office and demanded modifications to the voting process, including the installation of voting machines, before the next elections. Since the supposed passage of the no-confidence motion, the daily clamour has been for the holding of elections almost immediately, without the usual preparations and scrutiny.
These paragons of virtue, democracy, constitutionality and the national conscience would have us believe that the most shocking event in the saga of the no-confidence motion is the majority ruling on the Guyana Court of Appeal, which invalidated it, and not the palpable deceit, treachery and betrayal of the APNU/AFC voters and list by Charandass Persaud. For these people, Charandass Persaud is hailed as an honourable and conscientious man and a national hero, and the PPP/C leadership as advocates for democracy when, clearly, they are instigators and promoters of national instability and an attempted coup d’état. Rather, they accuse the government, whose election to office they have never accepted to this day and will never accept, of usurping power and occupying office illegally, and no ruling of the CCJ will stop this narrative.
When it moved the no-confidence motion in the National Assembly in December 2018, the PPP/C controlled a minority, simple and absolute, in the parliament and the vote would have failed but for the perfidy and collusion of Charandass Persaud. By gifting a government vote to the opposition party, he temporarily allowed the PPP/C to acquire a majority to secure the passage of the no-confidence motion which purported to dismiss the President and Government of Guyana and demanded the holding of early elections.
Now that the Guyana Court of Appeal has invalidated the no-confidence motion and the opposition and its allies continue to question the legitimacy of the government, the Prime Minister should move a motion of confidence in the National Assembly at the earliest opportunity where it should receive the support of a majority of its elected members. It is only fitting that a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly should be followed by a confidence vote. If a vote of no-confidence, however obtained, detracts from a government’s legitimacy shouldn’t a vote of confidence, in spite of the voluntary absence of the opposition, restore it and remove all questions, thereby demonstrating to the nation and the world that the National Assembly has not lost confidence in the government and that it has not lost the ability to pass laws and to govern democratically and constitutionally.

Sincerely
Oscar Dolphin

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News