WPA joins call for referendum on oil contract before 2025 elections

Nov 05, 2024 News

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Kaieteur News- The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) on Monday said that it supports the call for a referendum on the 2016 oil contract with ExxonMobil ahead of the 2025 General and Regional Elections.

This was revealed by Dr. David Hinds, presidential candidate of the party during the party’s virtual press conference.

“WPA notes recent calls for a referendum on the 2016 oil contract, while we do not oppose such move we strongly feel that such a referendum must also cover the distribution of the oil resources to the people and a form of governance to be adopted as we transition into a petro state,” Dr. Hinds said.

The party is of the view that the issues are interrelated and therefore the government’s contract with ExxonMobil and its partners should not be examined separately from the government’s “political social contract” with the citizens of Guyana.

“Support for such a referendum is therefore conditional. First, WPA recommends that the 2016 oil contract, the Buxton Proposal and shared governance be put on the ballot. Second, there must be consensus on the questions being put to the electorate, in order to avoid the exercise becoming a partisan political football and an ethno-racial census,” he told reporters.

On Friday, the Alliance for Change (AFC) said it supports calls for a referendum on Exxon’s 2016 oil deal with Guyana.  Chairman of the party, David Patterson in response to a question posed by Kaieteur News made it clear that the AFC believes that a referendum should be held prior to the 2025 elections.

Earlier last week, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said that a referendum being held at the same time of the 2025 General and Regional Elections would complicate the voting process.

A referendum is a general vote by the electorate on a single political question that has been referred to them for a direct decision.

However, Patterson made it clear that oil and gas is not the lone issue that requires a referendum. He pointed to the need to make amendments to certain clauses in the Constitution and those proposed amendments should be put to a vote via a referendum.

“We (the AFC) would support a referendum to do all of those things including matters of oil and gas, (being) on a referendum (even) prior to the elections,” the AFC Chairman said.

He reminded that the AFC is part of the Constitution Reform Committee and matters inclusive of the country’s newest natural resource must be discussed.

“Maybe it will be a good idea to include not only the recommendations from that constitutional committee (and) it will be a good idea to include other issues that we do think is necessary. Not only the oil and gas… the issue of death penalty, of course which I feel strongly about in the sense that it’s something that should not on our books,” Patterson said.

The AFC member said too that if the government is as confident as it claims then it should be inclined to “have one referendum to change all these things before the elections.”

Amid repeated calls by citizens and other stakeholders for a renegotiation of the lopsided ExxonMobil contract, which his government has stubbornly resisted, Jagdeo, who is also General Secretary of the ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP) on Wednesday sought to rule out any move towards deciding the issue via a referendum at next year’s general elections.

Jagdeo was asked the question by Journalist Denis Chabrol during his weekly news conference to which he said, political parties contesting the polls should state their positions on the matter and let the electorate decide if they want such a party to govern Guyana.

Additionally, Jagdeo believes that conducting a referendum at the same time of the elections could complicate matters. A number of developed and developing countries all over the world have held referendums at the same time as national elections.  These include the United States.

 

Chabrol asked Jagdeo: “for instance in the Cayman Islands, they are putting to referendum alongside their upcoming elections whether they should be constructing piers to accommodate larger cruise ships. So, I am just giving you that as a slight background so to speak, in light of the debate about the need to renegotiate the Exxon contract would your government or party be inclined to put that to a referendum as well?”

Jagdeo responded: “The referendum again, this is a matter that has to be discussed and debated on…this issue whether there would be a referendum so you get yes from the referendum…ummm…because Christopher did a suspect survey, nobody pays attention to these suspect surveys, so the referendum could yield this.”

He explained that as leader of the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C), he does not want to complicate the 2025 electoral process. According to him, there is also the belief that the opposition would go in favour of the referendum to complicate the process.

(WPA joins call for referendum on oil contract before 2025 elections)

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• AFC, David Hinds, Jagdeo, joins, referendum, WPA

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