PPP will not ‘beg’ gov’t to share power – Jagdeo
OPPOSITION Leader Bharrat Jagdeo Wednesday said the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) is not opposed to working along with the APNU+AFC coalition government, but will not “beg” to be part of the government. Mr Jagdeo was at the time responding to a report of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance of Guyana. The agency said that the PPP had “refused the offer to form a government of national unity.”
According to the Opposition Leader, “there has been no formal proposal to the PPP for power- sharing” and his party will not “beg to be part of this government.”
However, Mr Jagdeo said his party and the coalition government can “work together for the people of Guyana,” but that this has to be done on clear principles.
“We’re not anxious or begging to be in any form within the executive,” he stated.
The former President noted that the PPP has made clear areas of concern and has indicated to the government that when it is “done with campaigning” talks can begin.
“They are still in campaign mode…they are busy trying to destroy reputations,” said Jagdeo.
Chairman of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), Basil Williams, last week said he believed the opposition party will eventually join the coalition government. He said while the PPP is an opposition party, persons need not be “carried away by what they are doing.”
The PNCR is the largest party in the coalition bloc that unseated the PPP from the seat of government in the general elections of May, 2015.
Williams, who is also Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, noted that the coalition government remains committed to democracy and is open to talks with the PPP on issues of national importance.
“…we have always been inclusive as a party; the branches of our Palm Tree have always included all the ethnicities and all people of this country.
“We are the ones that always strove to have inclusive governance and we brought those parties to APNU and we were able to bring in the AFC into the realm.
“And we believe that the PPP [are] going to come…they’re going to come and we don’t want them to come kicking and screaming – they must come of their own volition when they see the benefits of inclusiveness,” said the PNCR Chairman.
Minister of State Joseph Harmon had been reported as saying back in June, 2015 that the PPP was invited to thrash out the terms of reference under which both sides would operate, but the PPP claimed that it received a letter from APNU and not from the government.