Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo has finally agreed to meet with President David Granger tomorrow.
The media was informed of this moments ago via a statement from Jagdeo’s office.
Jagdeo indicated that he received a reply to his March 4 letter from Minister of State, Joseph Harmon.
According to the Opposition Leader, Harmon’s response said, “the content of these letters has been conveyed to the President who advises that he is prepared to meet with you on Wednesday, March 6th at 11:00 hours at the Ministry of the Presidency and to discuss the issues raised in your aforementioned letters.”
In his March 4 letter, Jagdeo said that he wants the meeting with the President to focus on the date for elections.
He had also laid out certain proposals which the President must agree to before the meeting could occur. His proposals called on the Head of State to agree to General and Regional Elections being held before the expiration of the current voters’ list which is on April 30; that no new contracts be awarded by the State after March 21; that the government enters into no binding contract or agreement, be it loans, grants or land leases after March 21; that there be no abuse of State resources; and that thereby access to the State-owned media by all political parties.
It was not stated in the missive, whether the President agreed to these demands. Calls to ascertain same from Jagdeo and Minister Harmon proved futile.
Nevertheless, Jagdeo in his statement said that many people believe that nothing positive will come out of the meeting tomorrow given the track-record of duplicity of the Granger administration thus far.
But, Jagdeo said that having been approached by many Guyanese, civil society bodies and members of the diplomatic corps to make one last attempt “to avert the constitutional crisis that the President, with a complicit GECOM, is leading our nation into,” he decided to try again.
He said, “This is the last attempt by the Parliamentary Opposition to offer the government a way out of the constitutional crisis and to keep Guyana in the democratic fold of nations. If the meeting fails, the true nature of the government will be seen by all those who urged the Opposition Leader to meet.”
Jagdeo said that tomorrow will be a test of the integrity, credibility and sincerity of the President.
