Dear Editor,
The successful piloting of the no-confidence vote by Opposition Leader Dr Bharrat Jagdeo is indicative of the tense and fractious relationship within the leadership of the AFC on the one hand, and the continuing and deepening schism between the two coalition partners, namely the AFC and the APNU, on the other.
The fact of the matter is that there is no political or ideological glue that binds the parties in the coalition together except for a common desire to unseat the PPP/C from office. That being the case, there is hardly any sense of policy coherence between the parties involved. This explains the divergence of thinking on several important policy issues which found expression in the decision to contest the recent local government elections as separate political entities, and now in the historic and unprecedented passage of the no-confidence vote.
The PNC has to a large extent contributed to its own downfall by the display of arrogance and hegemony in its leadership style. The recent statements by its Chairman Minister Volda Lawrence regarding ‘her friends being only PNC members’ have left a bitter taste in members of the coalition partners, a situation made even worse by the sheepish efforts of two senior members of the AFC to justify the statements made.
Regardless how the situation may be viewed, especially by those in the opposition camp, the successful passage of the no-confidence motion is indicative of the fact that democracy is very much alive and kicking. It is, in a fundamental way, a renewal of our democracy by way of fresh elections which is constitutionally due in three months’ time.
The Prime Minister has, to his credit, accepted defeat and it is now left for the President to call new elections as stipulated by the Constitution.
The Guyana Elections Commission now has a duty and responsibility to facilitate that democratic renewal by conducting free and fair elections within the stipulated timeframe.
The whole of Guyana and the rest of the world is now watching to see how the new dispensation will unfold. Our democracy is put under the microscope.
Yours faithfully,
Hydar Ally
