Nagamootoo pledges to work with APNU against PPP
EXECUTIVE Member of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Mr. Moses Nagamootoo, on Tuesday, made it clear that his party will work with the main parliamentary political Opposition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), against the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government.
“We have decided to work with APNU and all other patriotic, political, business, labour, religious, human rights, women, youth…in a broad fight against the PPP minority regime,” Nagamootoo said during a news conference.
Since the 2011 elections campaign, AFC has been working with the APNU when they campaigned in traditional PPP areas to take away votes from the ruling party.
However, a Government official, speaking to this newspaper, pointed out that the AFC did not campaign in APNU-supported Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Upper Berbice) and other areas perceived to be highly supportive of the APNU, but in PPP support areas.
AFC always supported APNU
The official added too that AFC’s intention all along seems to have been to support the APNU, as evidenced in their moves since the 2011 general and regional elections.
Cases in point, according to the Government source, include:
* AFC’s support of APNU to slash the national Budget every year since 2012, effectively denying Guyana and Guyanese of further developments;
Opposition Leader David Granger
* AFC’s support of the APNU to vote down the major transformational projects, such as the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) expansion and the Amaila Falls Hydro-power (AFHP) project, the latter being seen as critical to the provision of cheaper energy and the development of a highly productive manufacturing sector;
* AFC working with APNU to block funding for a number of Government programmes including the $1B Amerindian Development Fund (ADF) and $450M for loan subventions to University of Guyana students; and
* AFC and APNU working together to vote down critical pieces of legislations that are important to national development.
These legislations include: the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (Amendment) Bill and the Customs Amendment Act. The latter was voted down by the APNU with the support of the AFC.
The Government had re-tabled the Customs (Amendment) Bill which, if passed, would have seen companies both local and foreign paying taxes on non-returnable containers of alcoholic or non-alcoholic items. The defeat of this Act resulted in the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) giving a ruling in which Guyana had to repay Suriname-based beverage company Rudisa, US$6M.
The official added that the other examples of the AFC/APNU ‘partnership’ are clearly documented and are matters of public record.
NO-CONFIDENCE MOTION
The most recent example of this was the AFC sponsored no-confidence motion against the current Administration.
Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan, AFC Leader
Nagamootoo, in June, indicated that the party was considering the movement of a no-confidence motion against the Government. Nagamootoo, in an article in a Wednesday’s edition of the Stabroek News, under the headline ‘AFC considering no-confidence motion against Government’, said such a move is seriously being contemplated by his party. However, he acknowledged that a no-confidence motion would have to be supported by the main Opposition APNU. A few days after, APNU endorsed this possibility as a serious consideration.
Both parties made it clear that they intended to push ahead with the no-confidence motion on the reconvening of the National Assembly.
Section 106 (6) of the Constitution states that: “The Cabinet and President shall resign if the Government is defeated by the vote of the majority of all Members of the National Assembly on a vote of confidence.”
However, the following paragraph, Section 106 (7) makes clear that: “Notwithstanding its defeat, the Government shall remain in office and shall hold an election within three months, or such longer period as the National Assembly shall by resolution, supported by no less than two-thirds of all elected members of the National Assembly, and shall resign after a new President takes the oath of office following the election.”
“There is no doubt that all along the AFC was colluding with APNU to work against the PPP/C Government,” the Government source concluded.
In addition to the Government official, political pundits have long speculated on a possible alliance between the two parties against the current Administration.
