Giving overseas-based Guy-anese parliamentary representation and ministerial positions is a big part of the Alliance For Change’s (AFC) policy, given the large contributions of the Diaspora to Guyana, the AFC’s Presiden-tial Candidate Khemraj Ramjattan has said.
He said that in his legal opinion there is nothing blocking Guyanese residing overseas who continue to hold Guyanese citizenship from being on a party’s list of candidates, once they have registered to vote. A Member of Parliament has to be extracted from a Party’s List of Candidates submitted to the Guyana Elections Commission before the polls. In its Action Plan for Guyana, launched in January, the party said that it would promote Diasporal representation in the National Assembly and explore the introduction of overseas voting at general elections.
Ramjattan had raised the issue while speaking at a fund-raising dinner in Toronto, Canada last week. In offering a host of solutions to challenges facing Guyana’s development, he said that these solutions must be worked out with the active engagement of overseas Guyanese. “Our party will reserve two seats in Parliament for representatives of overseas-based Guyanese. We want to also reserve ministerial positions for overseas Guyanese. You have an active role to play in the development of the country. And with us in government, you will finally get the opportunity,” Ramjattan told the audience. He said overseas Guyanese were “of tremendous importance to take the country forward, as they had the technical and financial resources to offer the country. More than 900,000 Guyanese live all over the world. We must tap into this resource base.”
Speaking with this newspaper yesterday, Ramjattan said that this was a big part of the AFC’s policy for the Diaspora to play a major role in Guyana’s development. He said that the AFC wants representation in Parliament for the Diaspora, pointing out that they are an extremely important component in the economy of Guyana particularly their annual remittance of hundreds of millions of dollars here as well as the skills they can provide.
He noted that once overseas Guyanese continue to hold citizenship and register to vote, they are entitled to become candidates on a party’s list. “We feel that leading members of the Diaspora are thus eligible…to become parliamentarians once they satisfy the two requirements,” Ramjattan said. He said “tremendous interest” was shown after he spoke on the issue.
Ramjattan said that the AFC is the first party that has gone in this direction and they also feel that members of the Diaspora can fill ministerial positions. He pointed out that there can be four technocrat ministers. In this regard, the portfolios which overseas Guyanese can likely fill in an AFC administration are Finance and Economic Development because the party wants these aspects to be strengthened, Ramjattan said. He added though that firm decisions have not been made on the portfolios. The Presidential Candidate noted that there are overseas Guyanese professionals who have vast experience in these areas and “they know the ways of the world.”
Ramjattan acknowledged that the professionals are earning many times what they can earn here and returning here would entail them making sacrifices.
He said that nothing debars overseas Guyanese from registering and many have said that they had done so. He recalled that at the fund-raising, attendees had said that politicians go to them and only want to beg them for money. In this light, his message was well received, Ramjattan said. “This kind of representation can help,” Ramjattan said pointing out that a vast resource can be tapped into.
