Charrandas Persaud accredited Guyana’s High Commissioner to India

Former Member of Parliament Charrandas Persaud has presented his credentials to President of India, Shri Ramnath Kovind, as Guyana’s new High Commissioner.
The event took place on Thursday in a virtual ceremony in New Delhi.
Persaud, in 2018, voted in favour of the then Opposition-sponsored No-Confidence Motion that evicted the A Partne

rship for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC) from Government.
It was reported that after he cast his vote, Persaud received threats from his former comrades, and, as such, he fled the country to Canada, and returned in 2020, when the PPP/C took office.
Persaud had told reporters that when the historic motion was tabled, he was forced to side with his ‘conscience’ in voting against his party.
Persaud represented Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) in the National Assembly, and was a member of the Alliance For Change (AFC), which joined with the coalition of five parties in APNU to contest and win the May 2015 General and Regional elections. He became a Parliamentarian in May 2015, when the Government was sworn in.
He recalled joining the AFC because he thought that he could have played a role in helping to develop the country and, more particularly, bridge the racial divide.
In a recent interview, the newly appointed Guyanese High Commissioner to India stated that “did not happen, because all we did as AFC…and that’s why now they are so dismantled, they are so disorganised… They don’t know what to do, because they have been shortchanged by the PNC”.
Turning his attention to the five-month protracted delay in announcing the results of the March 2 polls, Persaud expressed that Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon and former President Granger should apologise to the nation over their party’s attempts to derail the country’s democracy.
“I even challenge David Granger and Joe Harmon to admit to the people that they were wrong to the people; that they lied, because the Statements of Poll were clear that they lost the elections. The only thing they have to do now is to admit to the people…not just to their own supporters, but to the nation.”
According to Persaud, the APNU/AFC cannot be part of the “social bridging” of Guyana unless they “admit to the lies that they have committed, the lies that caused [the] country to be tortured for at least twenty-two months”.
Meanwhile, Persaud related that while he is happy to be back in Guyana, he is still conscious of the fact that his safety is of paramount importance.
Looking ahead, he said: “I am very happy to be back here, and I want to contribute…I know I can contribute towards the development of not just Guyana, but the lives of people in this country, and that was lacking in the Government that I was part of, and so I did my best to change it.”
Persaud had sided with the then Opposition PPP/C and voted in favour of a No-Confidence Motion, resulting in the six-party coalition Administration being crumbled.
But the APNU/AFC had moved to the courts to challenge the validity of the No-Confidence Motion on the basis of Persaud’s dual citizenship and that 34 votes were needed instead of the 33 in the 65-member National Assembly for the successful passage of the motion.
However, after many months of legal battle, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), in June 2019, upheld the ruling of Guyana’s High Court that the motion brought against the Granger-led APNU/AFC Administration was validly passed with the votes of 33 members.