Here are two reports – commentaries and comments follow
Gov’t falls after APNU+AFC MP Charrandass Persaud votes yes to no confidence motion
Stabroek News – 21 December 2018 – A high-stakes gambit by the PPP/C paid off tonight when APNU+AFC MP Charrandass Persaud voted for the opposition motion of no-confidence meaning that fresh general elections will have to be held in three months.
Persaud, an attorney, who represents the AFC wing of the coalition, voted yes when it was his turn tonight, stunning the National Assembly and clearly taking the government benches by surprise.
Persaud, a Berbician, proceeded to repeat at least four times that he was in favour of the motion when Speaker Dr Barton Scotland had the process restarted. The vote was then concluded and the no-confidence motion succeeded 33 to 32 meaning that the government had fallen.
The voting came at the end of nearly seven hours of gruelling debate on the PPP/C’s motion which had had the political class on tenterhooks.
The collapse of the government comes at a particularly precarious time with President David Granger being unwell and the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission also unwell.
The PPP/C lost the 2015 general elections by a mere 4,500 votes and will now fancy its chances at the new polls. It however has to decide who its presidential candidate will be.
With first oil set for 2020, the outcome will rock the entire country and particularly the investment community.
Tonight’s outcome will be a particularly bitter outcome for Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo who was one of the speakers on the motion tonight and who up to last night had boldly said that no APNU+AFC MP would vote for the PPP/C motion.
There would now be great uncertainty as whether the APNU+AFC coalition would survive this collapse.
Tonight’s development may also impel the formation of new groupings to occupy the third party space.
In September 2013, Persaud had a falling out with the AFC. He told Stabroek News then that he left the AFC because he was treated as second class and taken for granted. He later patched up with the AFC in time for the 2015 general elections and was named a member of Parliament.
PPP wins no confidence motion; AFC MP sides with opposition
Government back-bencher Charandass Persaud voted with the opposition Peoples Progressive Party to win the no-confidence motion in the 65-seat National Assembly that was sponsored by the opposition, after several hours of debate.
Despite repeated urging by fellow parliamentarians to change his vote, Persaud declined.
Minister of Health Volda Lawrence also unsuccessfully asked for a brief suspension to allow for a resolution.
Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams sought to block Jagdeo from wrapping up the debate by citing a parliamentary rule that the motion be put. That motion was seconded by Ramjattan, but before Teixeira could object, House Speaker Dr. Barton Scotland said he would speak on the motion after Jagdeo.
Early on in the debate, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo signaled that even if his People’s Progressive Party lost the vote in the House, that party would win the next general elections.
Except for Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan and Junior Minister Simona Broomes, government’s defence of its performance since May 2015 was lacklustre.
Ramjattan, early in his 40-minute contribution, candidly said the vote was down to numbers instead of talk.
“The defence of the no-confidence motion is when we vote here,” Ramjattan said as less than 200 mostly green-clad pro-government supporters stood behind police barriers opposite Parliament Building.
Inside the House, several government parliamentarians were clothed in green and yellow, colors of the governing A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance For Change.
He charged that the motion was more about Jagdeo- a former President, Opposition Leader, and now PPP General Secretary- on whom he called to give way to a successor. “The discussion here is to show the relevance of the ppp at this time and the mover of the motion. What you are doing here honourable member? You dont want to give a bright youngster a chance”, said Ramjattan.
Recalling that he had been expelled from the now opposition PPP because he had spoken out against corruption when he had been a member of that party, Ramjattan said the drug trade has been dented and Guyana’s international ranking in combatting trafficking in persons. “Corruption was always going to be their bugbear. I used to be in the belly of the beast and when you start talking, the Honourable member started the expulsion process”, he said.
Opposition Chief Whip, Gail Teixeira said the PPP was buoyed by clear popular vote victories in the 2016 and 2018 local government elections.
She accused the APNU+AFC administration of rejecting proposals from the opposition and ignoring its supporters. “One of the major complaints of your supporters is that you ignore them…This government has squandered the goodwill of the Guyanese people especially your supporters,” she said.
Opposition parliamentarians Anil Nandlall and Irfan Ali also pummelled government’s record in several areas such as a loss of 30,000 jobs; poor economic performance such as high government spending and a lack of private sector stimulus.
Junior Minister Broomes cited improvements in several interior lications such as Bartica, Port Kaituma, Mahdia and Mabaruma in addition to City areas such as Kitty. Broomes also highlighted improvement in the quality of housing being provided to ordinary Guyanese. “We are not moving into housing. We are moving you into communities,” she said. Instead of being a four-member family to be eligible for government housing, she said the coalition government has changed that to any single person 18 years or older.
Nandlall blamed government for failing to fulfill several promises, such as constitutional reform, outlined in its 2015 elections manifesto. The former Attorney General added that the coalition breached it’s own February 2015 political agreement between the APNU and AFC on, among other things, the intended responsibilities for domestic affairs chairing the cabinet and making certain constitutional bodies.
In his rebuttal, Prime Minister Nagamootoo refused to discuss his role,
“I would not be baited into discussing the role of the Prime Minister in this Parliament”, he said.
Saying there were no new arguments by the PPP as they had all been ventilatee in the 2019 budget debate.
Williams merely rehashed well-known allegations of state-sponsored death squads, and extra-judicial killings by police. “There is no way the Guyaenese people will ever again give them a mandate to run the government”, he added.
Loud heckling across the floor heard the PPP’s Neend Kumar and APNU+AFC back-bencher referring to extra-judicial killings Kumar shouted “Vincent Teekah, Fr Darke” who were killed in the 1980s when the People’s National Congress was in power.
Adams lashed back: “(Ronald) Waddel, Crum-Ewing, and Sash Sawh “your own minister” who were all gunned down in the 2000s while the PPP was in office.
Nandlall predicted that his PPP would win the next general elections and government has done a poor job in defending its record.”We will go in 2019 or in 2019 and you will be beaten again. And why, because the people of Guyana have given you a fair chance,” he added.
Nandlall, a likely presidential candidate for the PPP, failed to use the Ethnic Relations Commission to conduct ethnic impact assessments, repeal legislation to enshrine independence of the Parliament, a largely non-functional Judicial Service Commission and failure reform and modernise the Deeds Registry. At that juncture, Attorney General Williams heckled “done, done” to indicate they had been completed. “They are calling their own manifesto a bogus manifesto”, he added.
Nandlall also assailed government for failing to fulfill its promise of 2,000 jobs in each of the 10 administrative regions, and the creation of a national youth policy
Comments
The world’s largest circus on show in Parliament today
Dec 21, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
I hope at least one member from the PPP benches in Parliament during the no-confidence motion today says to Dr. Scotland, “Mr. Speaker I beg for your generosity, to have your permission to point my finger directly at the Honourable Member, the Prime Minister, and ask why did he stop two Guyanese stalwarts – Dr. David Hinds and Lincoln Lewis – from writing their columns in the Chronicle. If he cannot offer this House an explanation, then I urge members of ANPU and the AFC to vote in favour of this motion.”
The leadership of the PNC and AFC have been tormented since the no-confidence motion was tabled. Those leaders believe that two MPs from the Coalition will vote for the motion. Should that happen, then fresh elections have to be called in three months’ time.
In my conceptualization of power in Guyana, I don’t believe APNU+AFC deserves to continue in office. We all have our opinions and short of libel and nasty characterization, natural law dictates that we have a right to express them. In my opinion, the one situation among countless others that should cause the Coalition to fall in Parliament today, is that Chronicle scandal.
It caused me psychic laceration when it happened. To think that for twenty-three years we fought against party and government domination of the state media and to think that the budget allocation in 2012 for the state media was cut because of such domination. Now today the PNC and AFC are in power and they reject not two school boys, not two recent UG graduates, not two activists who just came on the scene, but two of Guyana’s staunchest pro-democracy fighters, whose praxis go way back to the seventies, from writing opinion pieces in the Chronicle.
I am saying boldly, graphically and unambiguously, this Chronicle scandal is plausible justification for the current ruling coalition to lose the no-confidence vote. Since it happened earlier this year, I taunt Lincoln Lewis each time I see him about the anticipated showdown between him and Nagamootoo.
At the wake of Bevon Currie last Saturday, we sat at the same table and I turned to him with a broad smile on my face and said, “Lincoln, you know Moses coming at the wake later.” With his inimitable expression and with an equally broad smile, Lincoln replied; “What is he coming here for?” Of course I was only taunting Lincoln.
The moral egregiousness, political depravities and philosophical emptiness of the post-2015 construct in Guyana are so volcanic, tragic, traumatic, that such a formation should not continue to administer this poverty-stricken, unmodern land that cries out for a future, a dream that has eluded this nation since Independence.
I had a long exchange with brother/sister team of the Fernandes from Bartica outside the AFC office last Friday evening. Juretha Rodrigues is the head of the AFC’s youth arm. With my dog in my arms, I asked Juretha to use all her intellectual talent and tell me why she supports the AFC.
After one hour, she couldn’t do that. I think she could, but she wouldn’t, because she knew her points would not easily stand up. The points of any supporter of the APNU+AFC government cannot stand up. I once wrote two years ago in these columns that no government since Independence made so many mistakes and was so unpopular in its first year in office as APNU+AFC. It has been a sad and woeful show. If they were a rock band on stage, the audience would have turned off the lights and pelted them with firecrackers.
But if APNU+AFC loses today in parliament, the world will shudder. Look who is the alternative. Half of this country is below 25, according to the US Ambassador. You put the PPP back, those kids have absolutely no future. This country has been ruined by the presidencies of Jagdeo and Ramotar. Everywhere you go in this country you see pyrotechnical manifestations of the tragic years of the long knives of the PPP. No semantic sophistication is needed. Simply put – the PPP destroyed this country!
The following lines are true. At the wake of Dr. Benjamin Singh, Donald Ramotar was leaving and Major-General Joe Singh escorted him out. He began to shake hands with people as he walked out the yard. A woman next to me, turned to me and said, ‘But he ain’t got no bodyguards.”
Here are some lines from Steel Pulse’s famous, great and politically inspired reggae hit song, “Bodyguard.”
Bodyguard, I wouldn’t like your job
Snakes in the grass say they know not God
Polytricksters drinking human blood
A concrete heart can hold no love…
The APNU+AFC formation has fallen
Dec 22, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
A parliamentarian from the AFC has voted for the no-confidence motion. It meant that the motion has passed. It had to come from the AFC. I told the sister/brother team of Juretha and Alan Fernandes last Friday that the AFC has betrayed Guyana. It was pregnant with possibilities of changing the racial horizon of Guyana, but the AFC fell victim to power intoxication.
I don’t want the PPP back in power. I doubt it can win a majority. But the AFC had it coming. People that loved this party, believed in this party, turned away from it and didn’t care if it had lost power. Well it has.
I want to take the rest of space in this column to express my true feeling about power after 2015. And I want readers to know I am being deeply sincere about my feelings here.
I was terrible hurt by the PPP. I saw the oppression the PPP perpetrated in this country. But I was deeply sickened by the rule of APNU+AFC. People are going to ask me if I was for or against the no-confidence motion. My answer is a bizarre one, and I hope you understand my emotions. I say bizarre because though I don’t want the PPP back, I had no interest in the outcome of the no-confidence motion.
I believe the PPP is a terrible set of people. I believe at the same time the PNC has shown it has an unchanging character. I believe at the same time, the AFC is not good for Guyana. I would be lying, and lying in the most depraved way, if I didn’t say there are personal issues involved in my attitude to the AFC and PNC.
I suffered tremendously at the hands of the PPP. My wife’s tenure as a fourteen-year employee at GO-Invest was made unpleasant. Yet not one person from AFC, the party I helped to put in power, even had one word to say to my wife, as to if she wanted to resume her occupation as an investment officer at GO-Invest. Maybe she would have said no, but still, because of what happened to me and her, the AFC should have asked her.
Khemraj Ramjattan led the picket line at UG when my contract was terminated. The Ombudsman ruled the contract was illegally terminated. Not one of these monsters in APNU or the AFC ever attempted to ask me if I would like to resume teaching at UG. From May 2015, no one in the AFC – that I helped to bring to power – ever telephoned me or sent me an email or contacted me with just a simple line that goes like this; “hello Freddie, how you doing, let us talk.”
I think I have said enough of how I feel about the AFC. I didn’t campaign in 2006, 2011 and 2015 for the PNC. I did for the AFC. The AFC is now dead. No eulogy should be offered, because it does not deserve a eulogy.
So where do we go from here?
This is my take. I think there are two parties that will be formed before the next election. There is the Amerindian party coming, and a group of well-known citizens without any baggage is forming another political outfit that will contest the 2019 elections. I believe that neither the PPP nor PNC will win a majority. One thing is certain – the AFC is dead.
What will happen then is that there will be two other parties that will hold the balance of power. That is good for Guyana. There has to be a force or forces to tame the hegemony of the PPP and the PNC. The PPP and the PNC should not control state power by themselves. We saw what Jagdeo and Ramotar did. We saw the abominable arrogance of the PNC. We saw the nasty betrayal of Guyana’s future by the AFC.
If the PNC or the PPP wins the plurality, then they will have to rely on other parliamentary parties to pass the budget and Bills. These opposition groups should exact a huge price from either the PNC or PPP, and that price should be clothed in the deep principles of governance. These include transparency, accountability, human rights, economic elevation of the poor, constitutional reform, patriotism.
We will have another election next year. The atmosphere is pregnant with all kinds of possibilities. But one thing is certain – the domination, omnipotence and pomposity of the two Leviathans are at an end. I do not think either one could get 51 percent. The no-confidence vote has opened the door to a new horizon.
Government Falls General Elections in three months
Dec 22, 2018 – Kaieteur News Report
In a historic political move, Alliance For Change (AFC) member, Charrandass Persaud voted with the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) on a no confidence motion, a move that forces the collapse of the coalition Government and early General Elections.
Persaud’s vote gave the PPP/C a 33-32 majority at the end of a fiery debate and a tense voting process.
This is the first time that a Guyana Government has agreed to debate a no confidence motion and it is also the first time the Government has lost such a vote.
Under the Constitution, the Cabinet including the President shall resign if the Government is defeated by the vote of a majority of all the elected members of the National Assembly on a vote of confidence.
Further, the Constitution states 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 not less than two-thirds of the votes of all the elected members.
During the vote count at the end of the debate on the Motion brought by Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, all 32 PPP/C MPs voted in favour of the Motion. Persaud was the third member of the Government side to vote. When Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs, first called Persaud’s name he replied, ‘yes’.
His yes was followed by shouts of ‘no’ from the Government benches. Then there was momentarily pause.
The Clerk then called Persaud’s name again and he replied ‘yes’ for a second time. The Clerk then stopped the vote count. The PPP MPs then objected to this delay.
During that time, Government MPs, including People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Chairwoman, Volda Lawrence, and AFC Leader, Raphael Trotman, were seen reaching out to Persaud. Lawrence then asked for a five-minute recess, but House Speaker, Dr. Barton Scotland, denied the request, pointing out that the vote process must continue.
Isaacs then restarted the vote count of the Government MPs. When Persaud’s name was called for a third time, he replied, ‘Yes, yes, yes’.
At the conclusion of the sitting, Persaud told the media that the AFC members are sitting in Parliament as ‘yes men’ to the A Partnership for National Unit (APNU).
“We have not blended with the APNU. The other parties have. We have not. The Government is APNU/AFC. We have not blended. Why are we doing everything they want to do like passing Prime Minister Hamilton Green’s Pensions Bill. That man is getting favours from the PNC, not from us.
“Why are we giving him taxpayers money? And we voted for that. We are not opposing anything; We are not saying no to anything,” Persaud told reporters on the corridors of Parliament.
Persaud, an Attorney-at-Law, said that there are times when one has to vote according ‘to your conscience and not because of party affiliation’.
“I am not a PPP member. I am not affiliated with the PPP. This is not because of the PPP. This is because my conscience is now clear. My life may go; you know what? I would die a happy person with a clear goddamn conscience,” Persaud noted.
He also took aim at Lawrence’s controversial comments, “I am PNC; my friends are PNC. I will give work to PNC’.”
He said that he wrote to Trotman as the AFC Leader to indicate that the party needs to make a statement.
“He [Trotman] defended Volda Lawrence for having said that…The Minister was overwhelmed because of the loss at the Local Government Elections. What did Volda Lawrence do, she apologised for having said something she should not have said.
“Trotman looks like he was just pi**ed on by Volda Lawrence and I am taking all of that as a member of the AFC because we have no say. This is the one time that I have a say and I said it according to my conscience,” Persaud pointed out.
Persaud also noted that the Government destroyed the lives of sugar workers in a village in which he resides.
“If I die not because people may not be happy with what I have done, I will die a happy person,” Persaud noted. He also claimed not to have spoken to Jagdeo about his vote.
REACTIONS
Photo – Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan (left) in discussion with Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo and other PPP MPs regarding security.
Outside the Parliament, security was beefed up. Police closed the gate and formed a barricade between public buildings and APNU supporters, many of whom had camped outside Parliament for the entire debate.
Along the Parliament corridors, some Government supporters were seen with tears in their eyes as they related the 23 years of struggle to remove the PPP/C administration in 2015.
Public Security Minister, Khemraj Ramjattan, was in discussion with the Jagdeo regarding security for MPs, especially Persaud.
Jagdeo said that PPP has been making a pitch for MPs to vote according to their conscience.
“We had hoped that a number of people would, but we couldn’t say that we were expecting a particular person,” Jagdeo noted.
He stated that both sides have to display maturity in this unprecedented move.
“It is a feature of the Constitution. It was there since Forbes Burnham was President. It was used today in a democratic setting. We all have to respect our constitution,” Jagdeo stated.
He stated that the party was hoping to have got at least two votes.
“I myself was a bit surprised with the vote. I suspect that he (Persaud) comes from the sugar belt and living in that community he probably saw the hardships,” Jagdeo noted.
The Government was locked in a meeting and later faced the media.
In 2014, it was the AFC in collaboration with APNU in opposition that tabled a No Confidence Motion against the PPP/C Government led by President Donald Ramotar. Instead of allowing the Motion to be debated, Ramotar prorogued the House and called General Elections in 2015.
Prior to yesterday’s debate, the Government was certain that its one-seat majority would prevail against Jagdeo’s Motion. Government MPs led by Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo, had said, ‘bring it on’
https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2018/12/22/government-falls-general-elections-in-three-months/
FULL INTERVIEW: CHARANDASS PERSAUD EXPLAINS
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WATCH: I CANNOT BE BOUGHT: Charandas Persaud: https://www.facebook.com/newsroomgy/videos/365102710731288/
I CANNOT BE BOUGHT: Charandas Persaud