Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday accused government of reneging on a commitment to share leadership of the six local government councils that were equally split between the PPP/C and APNU+AFC but Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan said it was the PPP/C who refused to compromise.
Jagdeo told reporters at a press conference at Freedom House that he had offered to come to an agreement with government on the Mabaruma Township and five Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) where there were ties in the number of seats awarded to the governing APNU+AFC coalition and the PPP/C after the recent local government polls.
He said one suggestion was that they would rotate the chairmanship and vice-chairmanship of these areas. He said that for the PPP/C, it was testing the ground to see whether government is serious about social cohesion and inclusiveness.
Jagdeo said that he spoke to Minister of Social Cohesion Amna Ally and made the proposal. Subsequently, he said, he received a call from Ally, who indicated that she had spoken to President David Granger and he had accepted. According to Jagdeo, they were talking about Mabaruma specifically and it was agreed that they would rotate the top positions on an annual basis. The Opposition Leader related that he said that he could not see why it could not be extended to the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils as well.
He said later that evening, Ally called him and said that the President wanted them to sign an agreement given what had happened previously with Georgetown when it was agreed that the mayorship would have been rotated but this never occurred.
“I said I did not see any problem with that,” Jagdeo said. He told reporters that a meeting was set where details would be worked out and PPP/C Chief Whip Gail Teixeira represented the party. He said that at the meeting, Teixeira was told that there would be no rotation and the PPP/C would get the top posts in three local government areas and government the other three areas.
Subsequently, he said, they were confronted with the “illegal, undemocratic” action of Bulkan.
Jagdeo criticised Bulkan for only appointing APNU+AFC councillors to the top posts and said that even in areas where the PPP/C won the most votes, the minister placed APNU+AFC councillors in the top posts. Among other things, Jagdeo said that this was undemocratic and thwarted the will of the majority of the people in those NDCs.
Not accepted
“It was not our desire to resort to the procedure that was employed. We had much preferred an accommodation and a political solution and this was not only the overture but the offer that was made by the administration—
that on the basis of plurality or in the cases where there were ties, that the party obtaining the greater number of popular votes would be given the right to elect the chairperson or the chairman and the deputy-chairman—that offer was not accepted by the PPP and this is why we resorted to the actions that I took,” Bulkan, however, said in response to a question by Stabroek News during a press conference at the Attorney-General’s Chambers on Thursday.
He said that the offer made to the PPP/C would have seen the opposition entitled to appointing the chairman and deputy-chairman of three NDCs and APNU+AFC the other three.
According to Bulkan, it was following the non-acceptance of the “offer of compromise” and in the interest of not allowing the PPP/C to dictate the pace of reform and rehabilitation within the system of local government that, Bulkan decided that the business of the councils must proceed expeditiously. Bulkan appointed APNU+AFC councillors to the six top posts.
Attorney-General Basil Williams added that the basis of the offer was premised on the plurality of votes. According to him, on that basis, the PPP/C would have been entitled to four local authority areas and APNU+AFC would have been entitled to three. It was a reasonable offer but was turned down, he said.
On Wednesday, Justice Diana Insanally on Wednesday granted interim orders quashing the controversial appointments made by Bulkan. Justice Insanally granted orders quashing the appointments of chairmen and vice chairmen for the Woodlands-Bel Air, Malgre Tout-Meer Zorgen, Gibraltar-Fyrish, Industry-Plaisance and Woodlands-Farm NDCs, as well as the appointment of the Mayor of Mabaruma Henry Smith.
