No ‘power-sharing’ agreement on the table – Granger

– recommits to inclusionary democracy

President David Granger has declared that Government has not placed on the table any formal proposal for a power-sharing agreement with the parliamentary Opposition, but he reiterated his administration’s commitment to inclusionary democracy.
The Head of State told a media conference last Friday that the issue of power-sharing has not been placed on the agenda for a series of planned talks with the Opposition Leader during this month, since there has never been any such proposal.
“As far as power sharing is concerned, structurally, it is too late to embark on a reconfiguration of the Cabinet, so what we have is… Soon after we got into office, there was a proposal that we should meet to discuss [what] I would call

inclusionary democracy, but there is no proposal on the table for power sharing – whatever that means,” he asserted.
Nevertheless, the President said, he is committed to having an inclusionary democracy, and will continue to engagement the Opposition.
“I will continue to engage the Leader of the Opposition to ensure that important elements in society and the economy are discussed, and we share ideas. Perhaps it’s better to say it’s an idea-sharing proposal, rather than a power-sharing proposal. But we have no problem with engaging the Opposition. All of my meetings with the Opposition Leader have been quiet cordial, and I expect that once we re-engage [this] month, things will go much more quickly and much more smoothly,” Granger stressed.
The Opposition had initially rejected Government’s proposal to engagement on a number of issues after Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo had been selected to lead those talks. The PPP contended that Nagamootoo is a light-weight and has no serious portfolio to make commitments on behalf of the coalition Government.
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo had, in July, explained, “[The impression out there is that] we are unwilling to engage because we don’t like Nagamootoo… [But] that’s absolutely not true; it is not the individual, but his ability to make commitments that we cannot accept.
“I pointed out to President [Jimmy] Carter that the AFC [Alliance for Change] can’t even secure a meeting with APNU [A Partnership for National Unity] to discuss the Cummingsburg Accord. Secondly, Nagamootoo has no substantive or serious portfolio…and that is the reason why (we refused to meet).”
As a result of this, during a subsequent meeting that month, the Head of State assured the Opposition Leader that, going forward, he would be leading these talks himself. This meeting occurred after Head of the Carter Center, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, had reached out to the two Guyanese leaders earlier in July in an effort to get the two sides to hold discussions on critical issues of national importance.
Since that July meeting, President Granger and Jagdeo have met again last Thursday, and are expected to have a series of meetings throughout this month.