Alliance For Change (AFC) Leader and former Public Security Minister under the A Partnership for National Unity + AFC (APNU+AFC) administration, Khemraj Ramjattan says the People’s Progressive Pary Civic (PPP/C) is the “government of the day”, but no declaration of its legitimacy will be made by the Opposition.
Since the PPP/C’s return to power in August 2020 after a five-year hiatus, the APNU+AFC has refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the administration, despite the 12th Parliament being constituted and Coalition officials taking up seats in the National Assembly. Two budgets have since been passed, a number of bills deliberated upon, questions submitted and answered, and just recently, the debate and subsequent passing of supplementary funds.
The government has in turn, refused to engage the Leader of the Opposition, saying that unless he and his APNU+AFC opposition members recognise the PPP as legitimate, only then can discussions be held.
But consultations with the Opposition Leader are unavoidable since such engagements are required on several matters, including the appointment of important constitutional officeholders.
Nevertheless, Ramjattan said that the APNU+AFC will not ‘bow down’.
“…We’ve already become sworn Parliamentarians; we are members in the Opposition; we’ve filed litigation in the court – that inherently means that the government of the day – installed or not – is the government of the day. We have a question mark over them, because we feel that a humongous amount of votes on the East Coast had problems; 4,800 people who are not in the country voted, and that was because of shenanigans done by the PPP. Whatever it is, we do not now have to go, and to the PPP arrogance, start bowing down and say ‘we respect you as the government of the day’…Do we have to now go and say that they were not installed? Well, we’re not going to do that…We are not going to lessen our worth by doing any declaration that will make them feel happy. We are in the Opposition,” Ramjattan declared.
