President David Granger yesterday afternoon told persons gathered to celebrate the opening of New Amsterdam Town Week that he is a constitutional president and that the government is a constitutional one.
During his featured remarks at a ceremony along the New Amsterdam Main Road, Granger touched on local government elections, telling those gathered that one year after winning office his government held local government elections, which the previous administration had failed to do for some twenty years. He then stressed, that his government would continue to hold local government elections whenever they are constitutionally due, “and we going to have it again whenever the constitution says we must have it because we are a constitutional government and I am a constitutional president.”
The President’s remarks about his status follows declarations both here and abroad that the government is unconstitutional as general and regional elections, due as a result of the passage of a no-confidence motion against his government, have not been held within the period set out by the constitution. This has been the stand taken by the opposition PPP, the Bar Council of the Guyana Bar Association, the European Union (EU), the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK) and the Commonwealth. The EU, US and UK have further said that developmental aid would be affected as a result.
