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Referendum on oil contract crucial before any future negations with Exxon-WPA
Co-leader of the WPA, Dr. David Hinds.
Kaieteur News-A referendum on the 2016 oil contract is crucial to any future negotiations the Government of Guyana is likely to have with U.S. oil giant, ExxonMobil. This is the view of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA).
At the party’s weekly press conference on Monday, Co-leader Dr. David Hinds told reporters that it would not hurt to have Guyanese engaged in public discussion about the 2016 oil deal.
Dr. Hinds referenced statements made by Attorney General Anil Nandlall which said that a referendum on the lopsided oil contract would be a waste of time. However, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo disagreed with Nandlall saying that the Attorney General spoke in his personal capacity and not as a government official.
Jagdeo said while there might well be issues regarding bringing ExxonMobil to the table even with a successful referendum, he would prefer to deal with the matter after next year’s general and regional elections.
A referendum is a general vote by the electorate on a single political question that has been referred to them for a direct decision.
“While that contention is true, an affirmative referendum vote would be a potent bi-partisan, national tool in the hands of government as it engages Exxon. To cite Exxon’s potential inflexibility in the face of a formal national demand as a reason for rejecting the referendum is akin to throwing in the towel before the game starts,” Dr. Hinds said.
The WPA reiterated its support for the referendum as part of a package that includes “the issues of legal, structured Cash Transfers and Power Sharing/Shared Governance.”
The WPA co-leader explained that the party did not provide much commentary on the oil contract because, “it was not part of the decision-making in 2016 and partly because we feel that the renegotiation of the contract should not be discussed in isolation from the distribution of the proceeds that come from it.”
The party holds the view that “substantive democracy should mean that all those who are affected by national decisions should participate in the decision making.”
(Referendum on oil contract crucial before any future negations with Exxon-WPA)
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